On this recording you will hear the works from two Belgian late romantic composers which, despite striking stylistic similarities, are in some respect the antithesis of one another.

The Franck Sonata is one of the most well-known works in the chamber music repertoire, yet few are aware of the fact that not only did Franck approve of the arrangement made by Jules Delsart, but that he had initially thought of the work as a cello sonata, so that this disc provides a still rare opportunity to hear the work as it was originally conceived. It is one of the composer’s most accomplished works, combining radiant melodic invention, richly chromatic harmony, and formal mastery in the use of cyclical motives.

Adolphe Biarent, an exceptional composer who has sadly slipped through the cracks of history, is in many ways the heir of César Franck, and his Cello Sonata, a masterpiece that should be in every cellist’s repertoire, uses similar compositional techniques. But where Franck ultimately delivers a message of faith and hope, Biarent, who wrote his Sonata on the eve of the First World War, is much more pessimistic. His sound world can be tormented, agitated, almost manic in the extraordinary Scherzo, or eerie and desolate as in the Lamento that is the emotional core of the piece. This work is much more than a curiosity, and it is to be hoped that this recording will help to anchor it firmly in the repertoire.