Structure and expression: performance practice in the cello repertoire of Bach, Haydn, and Rachmaninoff

This creative project examines how compositional structure informs performance practice across three cornerstone works of the cello repertoire: selected movements from Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 4 in E-flat Major, BWV 1010 (Allemande, Sarabande, and Bourrées), the first movement of Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19. Prepared and performed as part of a Master of Music recital at Ball State University, these works represent distinct structural and aesthetic frameworks spanning the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Through comparative formal analysis, performance practice research, and applied performance reflection, the study investigates how each composer's approach to musical form shapes the technical and interpretive demands placed upon the cellist. In Bach's suite, structural coherence emerges through dance form, implied polyphony, and rhetorical phrasing within a single melodic line. Haydn's concerto integrates virtuosic writing into Classical sonata-form principles, emphasizing formal balance, thematic development, and dialogic interaction between soloist and orchestra. Rachmaninoff's sonata expands the cello's expressive range through chromatic harmony, extended melodic phrasing, and a deeply collaborative partnership with the piano. Rather than treating these works as stages in a linear narrative of stylistic development, the project demonstrates that each demands a distinct recalibration of articulation, tone production, bow distribution, vibrato, and expressive rhetoric. By clarifying the relationship between compositional design and performance technique, the study affirms that structurally and historically informed interpretation remains central to expressive musicianship when navigating stylistically diverse repertoire within a single recital program.