Cello Concerto : Work information
- Composers
- Edward (William) Elgar ( Music, Images,)
- Performed by
- Yoohong Lee (Cello), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin (Conductor)
This work
- Work name
- Cello Concerto
- Work number
- Op. 85
- Key
- E minor
- Genre
- A
- Composed
- 1919-00-00 02:00:00
This recording
- Label
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- Producer
- John H West
- Engineer
- Dick Lewzey
- Recording date
- n/a
The Artists
Soloist: Yoohong Lee (Cello)
Conductor: Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York of Russian Jewish parents and made his violin debut at the age of seven with the San Francisco Symphony in Lalo's Symphonie espagnol, following this a year later with a recital in New York. By the time he was 11 he had made his historic debuts in Paris and shortly after at Carnegie Hall, at 12 in Berlin and at 13 in London, thus launching himself at an early age on a career that was to take him all over the world for the ensuing decades playing with all the leading conductors and orchestras.
Alongside his renown as a great musician he is equally recognised for his humanism, exemplified by his interest in and work for the young, for international understanding, for any of the many causes he found close to his synoptic mind and generous spirit. It was on his first visit to India in 1952 at the invitation of Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, with whom he founded a lasting friendship, that he met Ravi Shankar, developing a deep admiration for both him and Indian music and subsequently giving many concerts together, from which came their records which sold into their millions. He donated all the concerts given on his tours of India to Charity
Another example of his wide-ranging is his enjoyment of the jazz violin and his veneration of Stephane Grappelli, with whom he also made a number of best-selling records. In recognition of the many concerts he gave for the Allied Forces during World War 11, flying over from America whenever he could find space in a military plane, Yehudi Menuhin was awarded numerous honours, including the Legion d'Honneur, and from England the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed a knighthood on him and gave him the Order of Merit and in 1993 Her Majesty's Government conferred a life peerage on him.
His foundation in 1963 of a school for young promising musicians, and in 1977 the International Music Academy for young Graduate String Players in Gstaad, Switzerland, demonstrate his dedication to the development of young musical talent.
Lord Menuhin died in March 1999.
Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1946 by Sir Thomas Beecham, who was the Music Director until his death in 1961. By handpicking the personnel of his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas attracted some of Britain's most outstanding musicians. Through its many concerts, recordings and broadcasts, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra became internationally established as a virtuoso body quite unlike any other orchestra, founding a unique tradition in which there was a combination of discipline and flexibility, individual artistry, virtuosity and ensemble that stemmed from Beecham's relationship with his chosen players. This tradition subsequently attracted conductors of the greatest quality and diversity.
In 1961, after Sir Thomas's death, Rudolf Kempe became Music Director and established new artistic and professional directions for the Orchestra. It was also during this period, in 1963, that the Orchestra became a self-governing body. This has been the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's form of constitution ever since; and in 1966 Her Majesty The Queen conferred the Royal title upon the Orchestra.
Following Rudolf Kempe, the Orchestra continued to attract some of the world's most outstanding conductors as Music Directors including Antal Dorati, Walter Weller, André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The Orchestra has also formed special associations with Lord Menuhin, Yuri Temirkanov and Sir Charles Mackerras. Since September 1996 the orchestra's Music Director has been the young Italian maestro, Daniele Gatti.
The Composers
Edward (William) Elgar
The leading British composer of his time, Sir Edward Elgar composed a significant amount of orchestral music and arguably the greatest oratorio by an Englishman. Much of his music, in drawing inspiration from the culture and landscape of England, has become particularly popular as an expression of national culture. However, in his style, he leans more toward the influence of continental Europe than any home grown musical traditions.
Elgar was born near Worcester on 2 June 1857, the son of a local piano tuner, organist and music shop-owner. As a child he won praise for his improvisations at the piano, but had little formal music tuition. After undergoing a local Catholic education, Elgar began work at a local Solicitor's office, but left at the age of 16 to become a freelance musician.
For many years, Elgar taught violin, played in various local orchestras, and conducted. He made trips up to London to hear works by Wagner, Schumann and Brahms , and composed often. However, none of his early works seem particularly exceptional, and none were performed until the 1880s.
In the late 1880s he found someone to share his own self-belief, a piano pupil named Caroline Alice Roberts. The couple married on 8 May 1889 even though Caroline came from a higher social class. In a bid to establish himself, Elgar resigned his midlands appointments and moved to London. A number of publications appeared, but no major performances took place and, dejected, the Elgars moved back to the Malverns.
Throughout the 1890s, Elgar's reputation began to grow in the provinces, prompting in 1897 the foundation of the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society, which Elgar conducted until 1904. He wrote a number of cantatas, including Caractacus for the Leeds Festival of 1898, and heard a great deal of Wagner, Weber and Gounod.
However, it was the Enigma Variations of 1899 that brought Elgar to national prominence. The most distinguished British orchestral work yet written, it was quickly followed by one of the greatest oratorios, The Dream of Gerontius, prompting Richard Strauss to hail Elgar as 'the first English progressivist'.
These years of success were also marked by financial instability and in 1904, Elgar even talked of teaching the violin again to make ends meet. Prestigious honours continued to pour in, including honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Yale and, for a short time, Elgar also held the new Professorial Chair of Music at Birmingham University.
Having moved to a house in Hereford called 'Plas Gwyn', Elgar concerned himself with writing a first symphony. It finally appeared in 1908 and was a huge success, performed from St Petersburg to New York to huge acclaim.
After completion of the Second Symphony, Elgar moved back to London in 1912. However, war was looming and Elgar's music for the Coronation Ode of 1902 (based on the trio for the 1st Pomp and Circumstance March) had already acquired the Benson's words of 'Land of Hope and Glory'. When war broke out, Elgar begged for more restrained words as the tune swept the nation.
Elgar's Cello Concerto, composed in an isolated Sussex cottage, is generally regarded as a wistful and elegiac requiem for a society destroyed by war. Its first performance in October 1919 was the last first performance of any major Elgar work. Alice Elgar had been very ill and on 7 April 1920, she died taking a large part of Elgar's creativity with her.
A period of creative retirement followed. Elgar, fearing that his time had passed, wrote little more than arrangements or small-scale works, and spent more time in the recording studio than composing. His low self-confidence must have been further shaken by EJ Dent's inflammatory article describing Elgar's music as 'too emotional and not quite free from vulgarity'.
Senior musicians rushed to his defence and, perhaps also buoyed by an emotional attachment to young violinist Vera Hockman, Elgar began a last period of creative activity. Work on an opera and on a 3rd Symphony, commissioned by the BBC, proceeded at a pace until the autumn of 1933 when an operation revealed that the composer had been suffering from cancer.
Having gained assurances that no one would be allowed to 'tinker' with the Symphony (since 'completed' against his last wishes), Elgar was able to return home, where he died on 23 February 1934. He was buried next to his wife.
Track listing
-
Adagio - Moderato
8:02 min
-
Lento - Allegro molto
4:26 min
-
Adagio
4:58 min
-
Allegro ma non troppo
11:41 min
Notes
Elgar's last work of any significance, the Cello Concerto, can trace its origins back to March 1918. The composer had returned home after a throat operation and wrote a wistful E minor tune that he promptly set aside. The tune was orchestrated in July, but didn't find a home until Elgar wrote the first movement of his Cello Concerto the following summer, the tune appearing in violas following the opening cello recitative.
This most famous of all cello concertos is a work of unutterable beauty, though tragedy seems to lie round every corner. The daring cello recitatives that appear throughout the work set the melancholic tone, and are indicative of the enormous flexibilites in tempo and mood present in this work. The quicksilver scherzo and the achingly beautiful Adagio never settle, always searching for new expressive avenues. The finale, too, seems to reach for something intangible, even quoting the Adagio and the opening recitative, before Elgar hurriedly concludes the matter with a dismissive flourish.
The concerto was first performed by Felix Salmond and the London Symphony Orchestra on 26 October 1919. The rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates who so robbed Elgar of rehearsal time, that the performance was a near-disaster. Fortunately the concerto was recognised as the masterpiece it undoubtedly is, a requiem for lost friends and, presciently, for Elgar's wife Alice who died six months later.