Cello Sonata Op. 35

Dora Pejacevic (1885 - 1923) was one of the most talented female composers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. She studied at the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb then briefly in Dresden with Sherwood and in Munich with Courvoisier. For the most part, however, she was self-taught and developed her musical talents through contact with other artists and intellectuals, such as Karl Kraus.

Pejacevic's only Sonata for Cello and Piano in E Minor, Op. 35, (1913; revised in 1915) is an accomplished work from the point of view of technique, and impressive in its romantic zest and cantability. There is an interesting third movement - the Adagio sostenuto - all in 5/4 metre. Its basic melancholic mood is interrupted in the middle by dramatic accents. An important role is played in forming the large gradation in this movement by the growth in density of the setting and its final reduction to the original chord texture.