Cello Concerto (Elgar)

History[edit]

Elgar is not known to have begun work on the concerto until 1919. In 1900 the cellist of the Brodsky Quartet, Carl Fuchs, had obtained the composer's agreement to write something for the cello one day.^[1] Fuchs and his friend the cellist Paul Grümmer later reminded Elgar of this.^[2] The composer's biographer Jerrold Northrop Moore speculates that Elgar may have recalled the promise when planning a new concerto in 1919.^[3]


In 1918 Elgar underwent an operation in London to have an infected tonsil removed.^[4] The night after his return from hospital to his London house he wrote down the melody that would become the first theme of the concerto.^[5] He and his wife soon retired to their secluded country cottage "Brinkwells" near Fittleworth, Sussex. During 1918 Elgar composed three chamber works there^{[n 1]} which his wife commented were noticeably different in style and character from his previous compositions. After their premieres in the spring of 1919, he began realising his idea of a cello concerto.^[6] The work is dedicated to Sidney Colvin and his wife, friends of Elgar.^[7]


The concerto had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season on 27 October 1919. Apart from the concerto, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing."^[8] The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity."^[9] Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played for him again later.^[10] Elgar said that if it had not been for Salmond's diligent work in preparing the piece, he would have withdrawn it from the concert entirely.^[11]


In contrast with the First Symphony, which received a hundred performances worldwide in just over a year from its premiere, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.^[12] Elgar's music was by this time widely seen as old-fashioned, less appropriate to the post-war era than to the Edwardian.^[13] The American premiere of the concerto was given in Carnegie Hall, New York on 21 November 1922 by Jean Gerardy with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski.^[14] It was received with little enthusiasm: The New York Herald found most of the work "reflective, melancholy and generally depressing";^[14] The New York Times thought the thematic material "is not rich; it is spun out, sometimes pretty thin".^[15] Gerardy later introduced the concerto in Poland and Australia.^[16] The Sydney Morning Herald found the work original, musicianly and an admirable addition to the cello repertoire, but "without the qualities that kindle the imagination of the listener".^[17]


Later the concerto gained greater appreciation. In 1955 the authors of The Record Guide wrote of "the irresistible appeal of the Cello Concerto", although "the task of interpreting the solo is extremely difficult", requiring "a reserved dignity that is peculiarly English".^[18] By 1967, according to the critic Edward Greenfield, Jacqueline du Pré was "convincing audiences from New York to Moscow that Elgar is – on occasion at least – exportable".^[19]


The work has become, along with Dvořák's Op. 104, one of the two most frequently performed cello concertos in the international repertoire.^[7]