Cello Concerto, Op. 85

1. 0:00
   Opening cello chords

   The concerto opens with four chords for solo cello. The orchestra replies quietly, and the soloist follows. The violas then introduce a tune in E minor, which the cello takes over and carries through the movement.

2. 0:50
   Nursing home, London, March 1918

   In March 1918 Elgar had his tonsils removed in a London nursing home. His daughter Carice recalled that he “woke up one morning and asked for pencil and paper and wrote down the opening theme of the Cello Concerto”. This was the 9/8 melody first played by the violas.

3. 1:15
   First performance, Queen’s Hall, 1919

   Felix Salmond gave the première on 27 October 1919 at Queen’s Hall, with Elgar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra after too little rehearsal. That December Harrison recorded the new concerto, and the composer conducted again.

4. 2:10
   Play-throughs at Brinkwells, June 1919

   On 2 June 1919, Elgar’s sixty-second birthday, the conductor Landon Ronald visited Brinkwells and heard long passages of the concerto on the piano. Three days later the cellist Felix Salmond tried it on his cello. Alice wrote in her diary: “FS most delighted and enthusiastic.”

5. 3:40
   Score posted to London, 1919

   On 8 August 1919 Alice took the completed concerto to Fittleworth Post Office and sent it to London. Elgar had spent the summer working at Brinkwells, often rising at four or five in the morning to score it and add new passages.

6. 4:00
   Scherzo, pizzicato opening and Allegro molto

   The scherzo opens with pizzicato chords in the cello and repeated trials of a quick figure. In the Allegro molto the solo part plays almost continuous semiquavers, rising and falling.

7. 5:00
   John Barbirolli at the première, 1919

   Among the London Symphony Orchestra players at the première on 27 October 1919 was a nineteen-year-old cellist, John Barbirolli. In 1965 he conducted the recording with Jacqueline du Pré that many have hailed as the definitive one.

8. 6:00
   Ernest Newman’s review of the première

   In his review of the première, the critic Ernest Newman complained of a ragged performance. Of the music he wrote: “The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple … a fine spirit’s lifelong wistful brooding upon the loveliness of earth.”

9. 7:00
   Letters to Beatrice Harrison, December 1919

   On 14 December 1919 Elgar sent Beatrice Harrison “the copy with the cuts for the Gramophone”, adding, “I fear it is an awful slaughter but it is the best I can do.” After the session on 22 December he wrote that “recording is rather an ordeal” and thanked her for her “beautiful playing”.

10. 7:52
    Adagio in B♭ major

    The cello plays the melody in B♭ major, a key distant from the concerto’s E minor. Elgar marks it molto espressivo. Short rising and falling phrases are linked into a long line, and the orchestra accompanies lightly.

11. 9:10
    Adagio session, Hayes, 1920

    Harrison and Elgar returned to Hayes on 16 November 1920 to record the slow-movement side used here. The other three sides date from December 1919. HMV issued the two discs in May and June 1921.

12. 10:10
    Elgar on Schumann, Leipzig, 1883

    In 1883 Elgar heard Schumann in Leipzig and wrote to a friend: “My ideal!” Thirty-six years later Frank Beck heard Schumannesque echoes in the Adagio. Its B♭ major melody runs from phrase to phrase without a break.

13. 11:50
    Abridged finale, last side

    The last record side gives the finale four minutes. Its brisk main theme in E minor returns several times in the cello, with firm accents and short orchestral passages between. Harrison and Elgar cut the movement heavily to fit the disc.

14. 13:00
    Dedication and letter to Colvin, 1919

    The dedication names Sidney and Frances Colvin, friends of the Elgars. In late July 1919, when the work was nearly finished, Elgar wrote to Sidney that it was “a real large work and I think good and alive”.

15. 14:10
    Last illness, 1933

    During his last illness, in 1933, Elgar hummed the concerto’s opening theme to a friend. He said that if, after his death, anyone heard someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, there was no cause for alarm: “It’s only me.”

Joins

1. 4:00
   Pizzicato join into the second movement

   The first movement ends with three plucked cello notes in E minor. The second movement opens with plucked chords, marked Lento, before the cello takes up the bow for a quick semiquaver figure. Elgar wrote attacca in the score; on these records the two movements occupy separate sides.

2. 7:52
   From the scherzo to the Adagio

   The scherzo’s running semiquavers end in a few plucked strokes. On the third side, the cello begins the B♭ major Adagio with a rising bowed phrase marked molto espressivo, and the orchestra accompanies the long melody that follows.

3. 11:50
   From the Adagio to the finale

   The B♭ major Adagio ends with the cello slowing into a held note. The fourth side goes back to the E minor finale, with accented cello phrases and brisk orchestral replies. The main tune of the finale is marked Allegro ma non troppo, and the solo part is marked risoluto.

1. 0:00
   Cello recitative, opening of finale

   The orchestra opens the movement Allegro. The cello then enters, marked Moderato, quasi recitativo, with a solo in the manner of recitative, broken by pauses and chords and including a sudden run across the strings.

2. 1:25
   Cello entry, risoluto

   The cello takes up the finale’s brisk tune, marked risoluto (resolute). The solo phrases are accented, and the orchestra replies to each. Elgar breaks up the march with short rests.

3. 2:45
   Piano at Brinkwells, 1918

   In August 1918 Elgar had an old Steinway upright brought to Brinkwells, his cottage in Sussex. He began the Violin Sonata the next day and went on to write the String Quartet and the Piano Quintet. The Cello Concerto followed in 1919.

4. 4:15
   Letter to Sidney Colvin, 1919

   In July 1919 Elgar told Sidney Colvin that he had nearly completed a cello concerto, “a real large work and I think good and alive”. He dedicated it to Sidney and Frances Colvin. On 8 August Alice posted the finished score from Fittleworth.

5. 7:30
   First performance, Queen’s Hall, 1919

   Felix Salmond gave the première at Queen’s Hall on 27 October 1919, with Elgar conducting. Albert Coates took most of the available rehearsal time for the rest of the programme, and the concerto was underprepared at its first performance.

6. 9:04
   Late solo passage, finale

   Late in the finale, at rehearsals 66–⁠71 of the Novello solo-cello part, Elgar gave the cello an extended lament. It is marked Poco più lento, allargando and più tranquillo. Con passione appears over a phrase that contrasts with the orchestra’s earlier march.

7. 11:16
   Final Allegro molto in E minor

   The finale’s theme returns, marked Allegro molto. Cello and orchestra exchange short, forceful phrases and close the concerto in E minor. The ending is brief and follows the long solo passage.