Kodály himself predicted that "in 25 years no cellist will be accepted who has not played it". Indeed, less than 40 years later, in 1956, the sonata was a set piece for the Casals Competition in Mexico City. But in the meantime it had to earn its recognition. George Neikrug's playing of it at his debut at the New York Town Hall in 1947 was the first American performance of the work for many years. The piece wavers between B minor and B major, and Kodály adjusted the two lower strings down a semitone (scordatura) to better evoke these tonalities and to extend the instrument's tonal, dynamic and expressive range. The Sonata for solo cello has been recorded many times, by cellists such as Erling Blöndal Bengtsson, Natalie Clein, Rohan de Saram, Antony Cooke, Gisela Depkat, Pierre Fournier, Alban Gerhardt, Matt Haimovitz, Frans Helmerson, Yo-Yo Ma, André Navarra, George Neikrug, Truls Mørk, David Pereira, János Starker, Yuli Turovsky, Alisa Weilerstein and Pieter Wispelwey. János Starker first played it for Kodály at the age of 15, in 1939, then again in 1967 shortly before the composer's death. Kodály told Starker: "If you correct the ritard in the third movement, it will be the Bible performance". Starker recorded it four times (1948, 1950, 1956 and 1970), the 1948 78-rpm recording winning a Grand Prix du Disque.
VIDEO: Zoltan Kodaly - Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8 (1915)
