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Elgar: Cello Concerto Natalie Clein, cello

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Elgar made initial sketches of the Moderato theme of the Cello Concerto in March 1918, on the day he left a nursing home after an operation, but did not return to the work until May and June 1919, in the interim composing his Piano Quintet.

To the work’s dedicatees, Sir Sidney and Lady Calvin, Elgar said it was ‘a man’s attitude to life’, in this work perhaps reflecting an attitude of melancholy and loss at the now long-vanished pre-First World War world in which he found fame as a quintessentially British composer.

Though the first performance, with the LSO conducted by the composer and soloist Felix Salmond, suffered from a lack of rehearsal time and a lukewarm response from the audience, the Concerto quickly found favour with soloists and is now in the repertoire of every great cellist.

The expressive moods imbued in Elgar’s larger works can equally be found in the miniatures which he wrote throughout his creative life, five of which have been arranged here by Julian Milone, along with A Romance, originally for bassoon and orchestra, which Elgar himself arranged for cello and piano.

 "4*"
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