Cello Concertos
I recently finished a music history and appreciation class about cello concertos at Juilliard.
On the last night of class, the professor asked us to come prepared to discuss which cello concerto we would recommend to someone to introduce them to the genre.
My answer is the first movement of Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85.
My favorite recorded version of this piece is Jacqueline du Pré playing with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
There is a moment - in measures 32 and 33 in the score, or at around 2:42 in the above recording - that brings the form together completely for me. The soloist runs up to a high E, sustains it loudly, and then the orchestra comes in with the theme, booming.
When it came to my turn to share my Introducer Piece with the class, the professor's response was supportive and he also pointed out that it would sound quite different live versus in a recording. And that the introduction of sound recording technology made a huge impact because the cello could be amplified in the mix, either while recording or later in post production.
Taking a step back, this may explain why no cello concertos were written by giant composers like Beethoven or Mozart or Brahms. That is, cellos were not thought of break-through instruments in the early days of concertos. So these composers wrote concertos for violin or piano because they are uniquely-pitched instruments that stand out against the texture of an orchestra.
This leads me to the photograph above showing British cellist Beatrice Harrison playing into an acoustic microphone while recording the Elgar concerto.
Everything connects in this picture.
The soloist sits at the center. The orchestra is in the foreground. The conductor/composer (mustachioed Elgar) stands behind.
The year is 1920, one year after the work was premiered live by cellist Felix Salmon. By many accounts the premier did not go well because it was under rehearsed.
Harrison's recording brought back Elgar’s cello concerto, massively popularizing it and opening the door for subsequent generations of British cellists including Du Pré and Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
Did recording technology make a big difference for this piece?
I think so, yes. And for the genre more broadly.
Acoustic recordings are made by collecting sound into a horn and piping it to a diaphragm that vibrates a cutting stylus. So although the sound quality was poor in these early recordings, it could level up an individual instrumental voice in an orchestral mix. And it certainly allowed for wider distribution via broadcasts and pressed records than live performances.
If you are curious about cello concertos and haven’t heard one, or aren’t sure if you have, please start with the Elgar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Concerto_(Elgar)
PS. After listening to every major (and not so major) cello concerto in this class, here are my favorites in the form of a playlist. I didn’t find anything to my liking after 1959 (Shostakovich) but if you know of a good one, please let me know.
Monn/Schoenberg Cello Concerto in G Minor (bf 1750)
CPE Bach Cello Concerto in A Major (1753)
Haydn Cello Concerto, No. 1 in C Major (1765)
Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme (1876)
Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor (1895)
Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor, Opus 85 (1919)
Shostakovich Cello Concerto, No. 1 in E Flat Major (1959)
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/cello-concertos/pl.u-RRbVVD1T2XD23
