cello concerto Archives

Expanding the Cello Repertoire to Include Women Composers

Several years back I discovered a recording of a beautiful concerto written by the French pianist and composer, Marie Jäell. I immediately fell in love with it’s infectious melodies and knew I wanted to be able to play the piece. I discovered it was unpublished but the manuscripts were housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg. A friend helped me obtain them so that I could prepare a score for cello and piano. The Jäell concerto is the first known cello concerto written by a woman. Marie Jäell wrote the concerto in 1882 and dedicated the concerto to the cellist Jules Desart who performed the premier. One may assume that he helped her understand cello technique as the work is in a very comfortable key for cello [...]

By Wendy Velasco|2024-07-05T20:01:23-04:00January 30th, 2023|Categories: Artistic Vision, Repertoire|Tags: Cello Repertoire, Saint-Saëns, Marie Jäell, Women Composers, Xavier Phillips, Dvorak, cello concerto, David Popper, Franz Liszt|

Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 3)

Español Editions Ricardo Castro’s cello concerto has been edited twice. The first edition was authored by Jorge Alejandro Mendoza Rojas as a part of his unpublished Doctoral Thesis at The University of Texas Austin: “The cello concerto by Mexican composer Ricardo Castro (1864-1607): A performance edition for cello and piano” (1994). The dissertation itself provides a through survey of information regarding Castro, including his life, composing style and other aspects that are relevant to anyone willing to understand the concerto from a wider perspective. Mendoza Rojas’ edition includes a fully edited cello part as well as a piano reduction. The second edition was sponsored by the Sphinx Organization and has been recently prepared by Strings of Latin America (2021). It includes a piano reduction, [...]

By Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano|2024-07-05T20:07:50-04:00June 18th, 2022|Categories: Historical, Repertoire|Tags: Ricardo Castro, Latin America, Sources, Origins of concerto, Technique, cello concerto, Pedagogy, Cello Repertoire|

Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 2)

Español The Cello Concerto It is a mystery how Castro, who apart from being a composer was also a pianist of extraordinary ability, embarked on the composition of a cello concerto, the first written in Latin America. Although there had been associations between cellists and composers in important 19th century works for the instrument (e.g. Beethoven-Duport, Brahms-Hausmann, Chopin-Franchomme, Tchaikovsky-Fitzenhagen amongst others), Castro had no known personal association with any particular cellist who might have ignited his creative inspiration. Nevertheless, it is known that Castro was familiar with the work of the famous Russian virtuoso Karl Davydov (1838-1889), as he made and conducted an arrangement for cello and orchestra of a Lied composed by the Russian cellist. There are also documents in which Castro expresses [...]

By Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano|2024-07-05T20:08:21-04:00June 12th, 2022|Categories: Historical, Repertoire|Tags: Ricardo Castro, Latin America, José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita, Mexican Revolution, Marix Loevensohn, Karl Davydov, Pablo Casals, cello concerto, Cello Repertoire|

Opening Paths: Mexican Composer Ricardo Castro and Latin America’s First Cello Concerto (Part 1)

Español All cellists know that our instrument’s sound is beautiful, but it also claims its own time from the moment our bow reaches the string until we get that characteristic warm, generous ring from our strings. It also took time, probably more than a hundred years, from the composition of the very first known Latin American piece that uses the cello -"Quatro Tractos para Sabbado da Semana Santa” by Brazilian composer José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita, composed in 1783- to the composition of Ricardo Castro’s concerto -somewhere between the last two decades of the nineteenth century and its premiere in April of 1903. Through this series of posts, we are hoping to build a narrative that gives some context to Castro’s cello concerto, [...]

By Natali Herrera-Pacheco, Horacio Contreras, and Germán Marcano|2024-07-05T20:08:49-04:00June 4th, 2022|Categories: Historical, Repertoire|Tags: Ricardo Castro, Latin America, José Joaquim Emérico Lobo de Mesquita, Mexican Revolution, Oaxacan Porfirio Díaz, cello concerto, Cello Repertoire|

Finding Dvorak’s Cello Concerto – by Anssi Karttunen

As I often perform concertos that were either written for me or that few others play, it is always a welcome and special occasion when I am invited to play one of the well-known masterpieces of our repertoire. When that happens I try to take a fresh look at the piece. A couple of years ago I was asked to play the Dvorak Concerto at a cello festival in Beauvais, France. As several years had passed since I last played it I decided to take this as a challenge to see if I my experience of working with living composers would reveal any surprises in a piece that we all know so well. I studied the piece over 35 years ago with at least three of my teachers: William [...]

By Anssi Karttunen|2022-10-05T22:12:44-04:00February 9th, 2019|Categories: In the Practice Room|Tags: Interpretation, Dvorak, cello concerto, architecture|

Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cello Concerto Revival — by Brinton Averil Smith

June 8, 2018 marked the Naxos release of a live recording of the first professional performance of Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 'lost' cello concerto in over 80 years. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's career in his native Italy was cut short by Mussolini's rise, and he spent the latter half of his life in Hollywood, where he scored nearly 200 films, while continuing to compose classical works and teaching students including Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, André Previn, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams (André Previn tells the story of Mario forcing him to orchestrate Mozart's 40th symphony from memory, and then comparing his orchestration to the economy of Mozart's). Gregor Piatigorsky and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, August 1935 (source unknown) Mario relates that Piatigorsky asked “Castelnuovo, a great many cellists play your works as well [...]

By Brinton Smith|2018-12-19T17:54:18-05:00June 13th, 2018|Categories: Repertoire|Tags: Naxos, New York Philharmonic, Piatigorsky, premiere, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, cello concerto, korngold|

A Much Maligned Cellist: The True Story of Felix Salmond and the Elgar Cello Concerto (Part 4) — by Tully Potter

Blog photos courtesy of the Tully Potter Collection. This blog is a continuation of a multi-part series. Revisit it from the beginning in Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3. The original article first appeared in the Elgar Society Journal. THE EMIGRATION Early in 1922 the Salmonds left England for New York with their two children: Lillian had borrowed money to help pay for their passage and their living expenses while Felix established himself. On 29 March he made a successful recital début at the Aeolian Hall with Frank Bibb at the piano; but it soon became apparent that he would not earn much more as a soloist than he had in England, and that he would have to take a teaching post in order to make ends meet. He [...]

By Tully Potter|2024-04-10T18:34:29-04:00February 15th, 2018|Categories: Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Felix Salmond, juilliard, cello concerto, london symphony orchestra, criticism, composers, recording, Elgar, premiere|

A Much Maligned Cellist: The True Story of Felix Salmond and the Elgar Cello Concerto (Part 3) — by Tully Potter

Original image provided by the Salmond Family. This blog is a continuation of a multi-part series. Revisit Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. The original article first appeared in the Elgar Society Journal. The next development in the saga was that Fred Gaisberg of HMV wanted to record the Concerto—he had obviously not been put off by the première. As had happened with the Violin Concerto, just four 12-inch 78rpm sides would be available, but the more compact Cello Concerto would not need to be cut quite so drastically—the Scherzo would require only a small excision and the Adagio would be accommodated complete on one side. Sadly Salmond was under contract to Vocalion, so could not be considered. Guilhermina Suggia was approached but wanted too high a fee. The [...]

By Tully Potter|2024-03-28T00:05:27-04:00February 13th, 2018|Categories: Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: cello concerto, london symphony orchestra, criticism, composers, recording, Elgar, premiere, Felix Salmond|

A Much Maligned Cellist: The True Story of Felix Salmond and the Elgar Cello Concerto (Part 2) — by Tully Potter

Blog photo courtesy of the Tully Potter Collection. This blog is a continuation of a multi-part series. Revisit Part 1 here. The original article first appeared in the Elgar Society Journal. The fiasco that never was Just how much of a disaster was the premiere? Let us review some of the salient points, starting with the soloist. All those who knew him were agreed that Felix Salmond had a phenomenal memory, so there is every probability that he knew the cello part intimately by the time he arrived at Queen’s Hall. As the son of a singer, he had early imbibed the virtues of a singing line and good breath control. As a virtuoso he was no Feuermann or Piatigorsky but the few discs which document him in fast-moving music [...]

By Tully Potter|2024-03-18T13:24:57-04:00February 5th, 2018|Categories: Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Felix Salmond, cello concerto, criticism, composers, Elgar, premiere|

A Much Maligned Cellist: The True Story of Felix Salmond and the Elgar Cello Concerto (Part 1) — by Tully Potter

Blog photos courtesy of the Tully Potter Collection. This article first appeared in the Elgar Society Journal. Tully Potter tries to lay a myth to rest. Sometimes a myth becomes so firmly entrenched in the public consciousness that the true facts are completely obscured. So it has been with that archetypal English cellist Felix Salmond, whose career is always woefully misrepresented. In his adopted country, the United States, he is remembered for teaching at Juilliard and Curtis and nurturing most of the prominent 1930s and post-war American cellists. In Britain he is indelibly linked with the premiere of Elgar’s E minor Concerto, an event now encrusted with fables. Felix Adrian Norman Salmond was born in London on 19 November 1888, to musical parents: his father Norman was a [...]

By Tully Potter|2024-03-11T13:14:52-04:00February 5th, 2018|Categories: Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Elgar, premiere, Felix Salmond, cello concerto, composers|

The Forgotten Live Video Recording: Du Pré & the Dvořák Cello Concerto, 1968 — by Tony Woodcock

The most wonderful video performance of the Dvořák Cello Concerto by Jacqueline Du Pré and Daniel Barenboim was added to YouTube just a few weeks ago. In this CelloBello exclusive blog is a moving, personal description by a young London musician, Tony Woodcock, who was 17 years old at the time. Below he recounts the unexpected political backdrop for this historic concert, which was hastily arranged in response to the 1968 Russian invasion of Dvořák’s home country of Czechoslovakia. Tony Woodcock, by the way, grew up to eventually become the President of the New England Conservatory of Music, and was a primary supporter of the founding of CelloBello.com. My heartfelt thanks to him for his role in making our website possible, and for illuminating us on an extraordinary history that [...]

By Tony Woodcock|2020-10-29T22:20:59-04:00November 9th, 2017|Categories: Artistic Vision, Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Videos|Tags: cello concerto, perlman, barenboim, dupre, jacqueline, history, world war, london symphony orchestra, Rostropovich, Zukerman, Dvorak|

Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Forgotten Masterpiece — by Brinton Averil Smith

With over 200 film scores to his name, it's more likely that you've heard Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music than his name. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Florence in 1895 into a family that had been in Italy for generations, since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. His career as a composer began with conservatory study in Italy, and by the 1920s he was beginning to garner attention in greater Europe. In 1932 Mario began a lifelong friendship with the guitarist Andres Segovia, who inspired perhaps his most famous work, the Guitar Concerto No.1, and became an important champion of his music. It is largely due to Segovia's influence that Mario wrote over 100 works for the guitar, which today form an important and frequently heard part of that instrument's repertoire. [...]

By Brinton Smith|2019-07-02T23:30:05-04:00April 12th, 2017|Categories: Artistic Vision, Beyond the Traditional, News, Performance, Repertoire, Videos|Tags: Castelnuovo-Tedesco, cello concerto, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Gregor Piatigorsky, premiere|