The concerto had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season on 27 October 1919. In 1918, Elgar composed three chamber works, which his wife noted were already noticeably different from his previous compositions, and after their premieres in the spring of 1919, he began realising his idea of a cello concerto. He and his wife soon retired to the cottage in an attempt to recover from their health problems. After regaining consciousness from sedation, he asked for pencil and paper, and wrote down the melody that would become the first theme in the concerto. In 1918, Elgar underwent an operation in London to have an infected tonsil removed, a dangerous operation for a 61-year-old man. The concerto was composed during the summer of 1919 at Elgar's secluded cottage "Brinkwells" near Fittleworth, Sussex, where during previous years he had heard the sound of the artillery of World War I rumbling across the Channel at night from France. In 1903, Fuchs' friend, the cellist Paul Grümmer reiterated the request orally, and in 1906 by letter, so the idea of such a piece was not new. Fuchs later wrote to Elgar reminding him of this agreement. However, as far back as 1900 the cellist of the Brodsky Quartet, Carl Fuchs, had extracted from Elgar an agreement to write a cello concerto. Since then, leading cellists from Pablo Casals onward have performed the work in concert and in the studio.Įlgar is not known to have done any work on the concerto until 1919. The work did not achieve wide popularity until the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré caught the public imagination and became a classical best-seller. It is a long work, and it ambles on and on and on, utterly without distinction, utterly without inspiration." The 'Musical Courier' wrote: "About the Elgar there was no dissenting opinion. The American premiere was given on 21 November 1922 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski with Jean Gerardy, cello. Elgar made two recordings of the work with Beatrice Harrison as soloist. The October 1919 premiere was a debacle because Elgar and the performers had been deprived of adequate rehearsal time. In contrast with Elgar's earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate, the Cello Concerto is for the most part contemplative and elegiac. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, when his music had already gone out of fashion with the concert-going public. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Harrison would go on to make the first complete recording in 1928.Įdward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. Elgar and Beatrice Harrison making the first (abridged) recording of the concerto (1920).
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