Cello Concerto (Dvořák)

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The Cello Concerto in B minor , Opus 104 by Antonín Dvořák is one of the most famous cello concertos and is one of Dvořák's best-known works. It is one of the most important pieces in the cello repertoire.

Emergence

Dvořák wrote the Cello Concerto between November 8, 1894 and February 9, 1895 in the USA. At first he was not very enthusiastic about this instrument. The world premiere of Victor Herbert 's second cello concerto gave him the impetus to write a concerto himself. An attempt had already been made before the concerto, in 1865 Dvorak wrote a cello concerto in A major (without opus), which was neither published nor orchestrated.

In 1895 , after reading the score , Johannes Brahms is said to have exclaimed: “Why didn't I know that you could write a cello concerto like this? If I had known, I would have written one a long time ago! "

The concert premiered on March 19, 1896 in London . The English cellist Leo Stern played with the Royal Philharmonic Society under the composer's direction. It should originally have been played by Hanuš Wihan , to whom the work is also dedicated and who was a friend of Dvořák. But he had proposed too many compositional changes and even worked out a cadenza himself , which Dvořák had gone too far.

To the music

Allegro

Duration approx. 16 minutes

The first movement is very classically structured. The famous, very memorable main theme is followed by a very calm horn solo with the secondary theme , the melody of which is strongly reminiscent of the Afro-American spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain . The cello kicks in relatively late and suddenly in this movement for a concert and develops its own melodic lines that have little to do with the topics presented, a dialogue develops between the orchestra and the solo instrument.

Adagio, ma non troppo

Duration approx. 12–13 minutes

In this largely calm movement, Dvořák quotes his song “Let me alone” (op. 82. No. 1), the favorite song of his sister-in-law, who died in the spring of 1895. Dvořák was secretly in love with her once.

Final. Allegro moderato

Duration approx. 13 minutes

The final movement is introduced calmly by the orchestra and increases before the cello begins after about half a minute and the theme of the movement plays in full. In the coda , the song “Let me alone” is quoted again, so that the composer rejected the cadenza proposed by Wihan from the outset “for personal reasons”.

Recordings (selection)

Web links

Audio media

  1. Sentence, John Michel - Listen ? / iAudio file / audio sample
  2. Sentence, John Michel - Listen ? / iAudio file / audio sample
  3. Sentence, John Michel - Listen ? / iAudio file / audio sample

Video clips