Our (see Pierre Nicolas Colombat) debut recording of Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata is OUT NOW! This independent project, in collaboration with audio engineers Peter Atkinson and Greg DiCrosta, was fueled by a love of Viennese joy and melancholy, and the best of New Haven pizza.

Arpeggione Sonata is now available for purchase (high-quality audio) on Bandcamp and for listening on all major streaming services. And signed CD!

THE PROGRAM NOTES

I. Allegro moderato - Franz Schubert, famous for three minute lieder and hour long chamber works, Schubert composed the rather normal-durationed Arpeggione Sonata in 1824 at the request of arpeggione virtuoso, Vincenz Schuster. The arpeggione, essentially a bowed guitar, went extinct soon afterwards, and so did the sonata. It was not rediscovered and published until 1871, when Breitkopf and Hartel was compiling the complete works of Schubert. A cello transcription was included and violists soon after laid their claim. The challenges of playing a piece written for a six-stringed instrument on four string instruments, have been, well, challenging the C-string community for the century and a half since. But this is not the forum for airing my grievances, especially after so much effort has gone into hiding the difficulties of this piece. Read more…

Album cover photo by Abigail Elder

Session photos by Daniel Orsen