A European Informational Website
learn more
Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85 was his last notable work, and is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire.
The piece was composed during the summer of 1919 at Elgar's secluded cottage named "Brinkwells" in 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 1918, Elgar underwent an operation in London to have an infected tonsil removed, a dangerous operation for a 56-year-old man. After regaining consciousness after sedation, he asked for pencil and paper, and wrote down the melody that would become the first theme from the cello concerto. He and his wife soon retired to the cottage in an attempt to recover from their health problems. In 1918, Elgar composed three chamber works, which his wife noted were already noticeably different from his previous compositions, and after their premiere in the spring of 1919, he began realizing his idea of a cello concerto.[1]
The première of the cello concerto was given by Felix Salmond on 27 October 1919 with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, at the Queen's Hall in London. His wife's death a few months after the premiere of the cello concerto effectively ended his composing career.[1]
The work has four movements:
This piece represented, for Elgar, the angst, despair, and disillusionment he felt after the end of the War, and an introspective look at death and mortality. It was a significant change in his style, as he wrote much of his previous works to be noble and jovial, inspired by the English way of life and the pre-war renaissance of European art.
The concerto opens with a dramatic recitative in the solo cello, immediately followed by a short cadenza. The viola section then presents a distant rendition of the main theme, who pass it to the solo cello, who repeats it and then modifies it into a stronger, more painful restatement. The orchestra reiterates, and the cello presents the theme a final time before moving directly into the lighthearted and lyrical middle section. This transitions into another presentation of the main theme, but cold and distant, a mere echo of the original theme, and moves directly into the fast, light-hearted second movement.
The third movement starts and ends with a melody in which the entire orchestra starts together, but drops out leaving the cello playing alone. One theme runs through the entire movement, giving it a loving nostalgic feeling. The end of the third movement flows directly into the fourth movement, contrasting the sweetness of the B flat major third movement, with the menacing, B flat minor opening of the fourth movement. The fourth movement's main theme is noble and stately, but with menacing undertones and with many key-changes, giving it the feeling of instability. Near the end of the piece, the tempo slows into a piu lento section, in which a new set of themes appears. The tempo slows further, to the tempo of the third movement, and the theme from the third movement is restated. This tempo continues to slow until it becomes stagnant, and the orchestra holds a chord. Then, at the very end of the piece, the opening of the first movement is played again, with subtle differences. This flows into a reiteration of the main theme of the fourth movement, which closes the piece.