Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 Adagio - moderato Lento - Allegro molto Adagio Allegro, ma non troppo The Cello Concerto belongs to the group of Elgar’s late works that includes the piano quintet and string quartet, as well as the three violin sonatas. Elgar composed the Concerto during 1918 and 1919. Although begun in London, the major part of it was written at Brinkwells,the Elgars’ country cottage in Sussex. Elgar was very pleased with his new work, describing it as a"real large work and I think good and alive”. The first performance took place, conducted by the composer, at the Queen’s Hall, London, on 26 October 1919, in the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra’s first post-war season. Albert Coates, who allowed composer and soloist little timefor rehearsal, conducted the bulk of the programme.The resulting performance was predictably poor. "Never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable a public exhibition of itself,"commented Ernest Newman in The Observer. Nonetheless.the Concerto’s great merits were quickly recognised and appreciated. Although Elgar uses afull orchestra, the Orchestration iseconomical.Consequently the solo part, which is almost continuous, never has any difficulty in speaking against the accompaniment.The four movements are linked in pairs. Both the first and second movements commence with a cello recitative, and the slow movement leads directly into the finale. The work opens with the cello playing a recitative-like phrase that recurs in the second and fourth movements.The first movement proper then gets under way with the violas introducing the principal melody, characteristic of Elgar’s later, wistful, style. A second subject appears on the clarinets and passes to the cello.These two themes constitute the movement. The reappearance of the cello’s opening phrase, played pizzicato, announces the second movement.This is a scherzo, and has the rushing character of the moto perpetuo.
