Robert Cohen and Dina Duisen – Song and Sonata for Cello and Piano

Artists: Robert Cohen (cello) and Dina Duisen (piano)

Concert Sponsor: Don and Betty Frampton

Programme

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
• Gabriel Fauré – Après un Rêve; Papillon; Élégie
• Interval
• Johannes Brahms – Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99

About the Concert

nadsa opens its 2026–2027 season on Sunday 27 September with one of the foremost cellists of our age. Robert Cohen will perform with his recital partner since 2023, Kazakh-British pianist Dina Duisen, making her fourth appearance with nadsa. The afternoon pairs two towering cello sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms with a group of Fauré’s most cherished miniatures. A programme of conversation and contrast, it ranges from Classical poise to autumnal Romantic warmth.

From Classical Dialogue to Romantic Fire

The afternoon opens with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, composed in 1807–08 during his heroic middle period. It was the first cello sonata to treat the two instruments as genuine equals, and it announces that intent at once: the cello sings the opening theme entirely unaccompanied. There follows a set of Fauré’s best-loved short pieces. Après un Rêve, originally a song from the 1870s, unfolds as a long, yearning melodic line; the gentle Papillon flutters with salon charm; and the Élégie of 1880 is an intensely lyrical lament, one of the most loved of all cello works.

After the interval comes Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, written in the summer of 1886 during a fertile holiday beside Lake Thun and dedicated to the cellist Robert Hausmann. Passionate and expansive, with bold tremolo writing and a slow movement of rare tenderness, it is Brahms at his most ardent. The critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that in this music “passion rules, fiery to the point of vehemence.”

About the Artists

Robert Cohen has enjoyed a distinguished international career spanning more than four decades, performing with many of the world’s leading conductors and chamber ensembles. He made his concerto debut at the Royal Festival Hall at the age of twelve and his recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto, made when he was nineteen, earned a silver disc. He has recorded for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, BIS, Decca and others, and is William Pleeth Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music. The Guardian has written that Cohen “can hold any audience in the palm of his hand.”

Dina Duisen brings warmth and versatility to the piano partnership. Born in Almaty into a family of musicians and resident in London since 2002, she gained her Master of Arts with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, where she now works alongside the Royal College of Music. Her solo album Mazurkas from Chopin to Adès was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Keener. In 2023 she founded her annual chamber-music festival “Dina & Friends” at the 1901 Arts Club in London. This is her fourth appearance at nadsa.

Why You Shouldn’t Miss This

This is chamber music of the highest order: two great cello sonatas framing a garland of Fauré’s most affecting writing, performed by an artist at the height of his powers and a pianist of real distinction.