Julian Steckel conquers Kodály

A rising star on the international circuit  (“Phenomenally gifted” Die Welt), 27 year old cellist Julian Steckel brings dazzling technique and charisma to a fiendish work - Kodály’s Cello Sonata, Op. 8.

Recorded in 2008 at the Granary Barn, a remote studio in the open landscapes of Norfolk, Steckel’s visceral performance is pitched against exposed brickwork.

Zoltan Kodály’s cello sonata is the first major work for unaccompanied cello since Bach, dedicated to one of Hungary’s leading cellists, Eugene de Kerpely, and first played by him in Budapest on 7th May 1918. 

It is highly original, and makes sensitive and inventive use of folk forms, while challenging a cellist’s technique. The two lower strings are turned down a semitone to affect the piece’s contest between B-major and B-minor, creating, as Julian elucidates below “another cosmos of sound” to discover.

Watch Julian talking In Berlin with Adrian Brendel on Plushmusic.

Julian Steckel is also a member of the Plush Ensemble - a dynamic collective of musicians committed to performing classical chamber music works alongside music of the avant-garde. Watch Julian and the Plush Ensemble perform Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht at the Music at Plush festival.

What they say…

“…fascinating how Julian Steckel was ignited by Kodály’s Sonata, Op. 8, how he charged it with energy until it seemed to explode, how he electrified the notes, splattered these with rhythmic neutrons and compressed them into formal meltdown.” Frankfurter Rundschau 

“He has magical hands that create superb musicianship and he seems to have everything in place:technical skill, sensitivity, charisma and intuition. …downright magisterial…” Music and Vision