Cello Concerto (1979)

Cello solo, Solo Percussion, Orchestra – 19 min.

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Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Cello Concerto

The cello is human, struggling, rhapsodic, atonal, ametric, technically self-assured but emotionally insecure, particularly in light of its encounter with the orchestra, a mysterious, overwhelming supernatural or extraterrestrial force. The cello tries in several ways to cope with this unpredictable presence which spews bits of Beethoven and Berlioz, haunting echoes from the cello’s irrelevant, long-forgotten past. The energy of the orchestra culminates in a tempestuous whirlwind fugue.

An outburst of Sibelius ushers in a third character, the solo percussion: liaison, angel, envoy, reflecting the orchestra but sympathetic to the cello. Through him, the cello seeks rapport with the orchestra, unsuccessfully. The orchestra and percussion fall silent. The cello’s peripatetic cadenza is interrupted by bowed solo percussion which leads to a new kind of orchestral entrance: a rich, soft blanket of sound eliciting at last a lyric, embracing response from the cello.