1st cello concerto (Haydn)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major (Hob. VIIb: 1) by Joseph Haydn was probably composed between 1761 and 1765 for his friend Joseph Franz Weigl , who was Prince Esterházy's first cellist at the time . The orchestra is relatively small with two oboes, two horns and strings; a figured bass is also written out. The playing time is about 25 minutes.

background

The work was considered lost until 1961, when music researcher Oldřich Pulkert found a transcript of the parts in the Prague National Museum . It is one of nine cello concertos formerly attributed to Haydn, of which only two have been passed down as unquestionably authentic, including the 2nd cello concerto in addition to the work dealt with in this article . The existence of the 1st cello concerto was only known from Haydn's own “draft catalog” (1765), with whose entries the found notes matched. On May 19, 1962, the work was "premiered" again as part of the Prague Spring .

Sentence sequence

The cello concerto consists of the following three movements :

  1. Moderato
  2. adagio
  3. Allegro molto

All movements are in sonata form , which will no longer be the case with his second cello concerto in D major.

To the music

Beginning of the cello solo in the 1st movement

Although the work was created in the Classical period, it still bears strongly pronounced signs of the late Baroque . The solo cello picks out a few parts of the entire thematic material presented by the orchestra in the first movement. In a nutshell, it plays the subordinate sentence; no thematic pieces are included in the implementation. The alternation of solo and tutti blocks, which are normally expected as a characteristic in concerti , is also striking .

The Adagio is cantable-like and monothematic. The cellist takes over the melody of the violins at the beginning of the movement and continues it. The relatively high register over large parts of the solo part poses a particular challenge. The third movement is played musically and dynamically and has the same structure as the first movement.

literature

  • Brigitte Esser (Red.): Harenberg, cultural guide concert. 7th, completely revised edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2006, ISBN 3-411-76161-X .

Web links