Which Cello Concerto to go for (I'm ready to suffer)

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

I want to suffer, I want Schmerz and Pain. Which Cello Concerto to go for, next? I'm though with:

Elgar/Du Pré (Cptn. obvious is calling)
Dvorak
Kabalevsky (Great one)
William Bush (Handley/Lyrita)

I like the Weltschmerz as in Elgar and the darkness like in the first Kabalevsky movement. What next, GMG?

-Michael

p.s.: After the suffering, there will be pure and ecstatic joy tomorrow, after our devastating victory in the soccer war against England. BTW why do they let Phil Collins play (and call him "roo")?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I'd go with the 2nd Shostakovich Concerto. There is plenty of pain in it, plus a certain bleak world-weary feeling (Weltschmerz) that is characteristic of his late, post-heart-attack work.

The two by Schnittke would also fit the bill, also the Lutoslawski. Though I don't know how bleak and dissonant you want to go if Elgar and Dvorak are your reference points.

[Opus106]

The two by Schnittke would also fit the bill

Oh, yeah. I've heard only the first...but for the most part, it has all the suffering and pain you want, and some more. However, the ending is quite the opposite. Everything that you're looking for in a single package.

[Guido]

The English composers are very good at this - virtually all of them composed one much later in life - probably feeling the pull of Elgar's effort. Finzi's is just ravishing and so sad, Walton's too, Bridge, Britten, Bliss - all very fine and given your preferences here it sounds like you'd really like these. The Finzi is the closest harmonically to the Busch, but is a far greater work, so you're in for a treat there. Get Tim Hugh's account on Naxos. The cello's voice seems to be uniquely placed to express those autumnal, nostalgic, world weary thoughts that old composers seem to get!

I agree with Velimir though: Shostakovich's Second is my favourite piece by that composer - bleak but also very beautiful - pain, and ecstacy in equal measures. The first concerto is also a rather pained utterance but isn't yet as world weary - it's more combative and energetic. Get Rostropovich's studio recording with Ozawa: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000001GJK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00005NUPS&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0K9HN8MDWF7CK0SRCA1X

Barber's cello concerto is another of the finest string concertos of the last century, and the slow movement is exactly what you're craving, though the powerful drama of the last movement is also in the same tragic vein, but now with an added restlessness and intensity. Get Wendy Warner's version on Naxos.

[not edward]

Schnittke's 1st, for sure. 30 minutes of dark and getting darker; then after the chaotic end to the scherzo, everything changes.

[snyprrr]

Schnittke 2
Halffter 2
Penderecki 2

All for Slava, all late '80s, all gloomy. I really like the Halffter.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Thanks for your valuable input, I'd like to listen to them all,,, I think I'll start with Shosta#2, got it with Barshai/WDR ...

There was no time for listening this weekend, but time for sheer joy: WE MÜLLERED THEM! GER 4 ENG 1

[Brian]

The Finzi is the closest harmonically to the Busch, but is a far greater work, so you're in for a treat there. Get Tim Hugh's account on Naxos. The cello's voice seems to be uniquely placed to express those autumnal, nostalgic, world weary thoughts that old composers seem to get!

Seconded.

[pjme]

André Jolivet wrote two celloconcerti - nr 1 for André Navarra, nr 2 for Rostropovitch.
If you accept/understand Shostakovitch, you should be able to grasp Jolivet...

The first concerto( with orchestra) is more lyrical than nr 2 (with stringorchestra and solo string quintet).
From http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/oct04/Jolivet_Erato.htm

In this as in the First Cello Concerto, Jolivet, now in his full maturity and in full command of his skills, really achieves his Jeune France ideals, in invigorating musical terms full of contrasts, arresting sonorities and rhythmic alertness. In the first and second movements of the First Cello Concerto, the music conjures mysterious, ominous, primeval visions, no less so in the extraordinary second movement; really a jungle in sounds that also includes a remarkable cadenza. The third movement, a brilliant moto perpetuo, has the dancing quality often associated with Jolivet's final movements, and rushes headlong towards its mightily assertive conclusion. Suite en concert for solo cello was completed some time later. This impressive, often quite beautiful work in five contrasted movements is certainly not unworthy the comparison with Bach's cello suites (to which it pays a passing tribute), Bartok's Sonata for Solo Violin and, of course, Kodaly's grand Sonata for Solo Cello. This demanding music (Navarra once recalled in an interview how his fingers were bleeding after the first run-through), though, still is as communicative as ever. This led to the completion of the Second Cello Concerto written for and first performed by Rostropovich. Though unmistakably by the same composer, the Second Cello Concerto is poles apart from its predecessor. First, it is scored for strings (including a solo quintet surrounding the soloist). Second, it is on the whole more lyrical. The music, as demanding as ever, fully displays Jolivet's orchestral mastery; for, while renouncing the hugely varied sound palette of the First Cello Concerto, Jolivet conjures some remarkably imaginative and powerfully expressive string writing. As far as I am concerned, Jolivet's cello concertos undoubtedly belong to his greatest achievements, though they are still unjustly and shamefully neglected by cellists, which is hard to understand, when one thinks of the comparative popularity of Dutilleux's and Lutosławski's equally demanding and rewarding concertos.

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/oct04/Jolivet_Erato.htm#ixzz0sAmLlm7I


Honeggers' concerto has a great "1920-ies" feel : pastoral jazz.
Frank Martin's concerto is - like the Jolivet works- a big and serious composition. Original orchestration, memorable melodies.

P.

[Joe Barron]

Carter, of course.

[Mirror Image]

Definitely try Dvorak, Britten (a cello concerto in all but the title IMHO), Delius, Elgar, Khachaturian (very underrated concerti by the way), Barber, all of Vivaldi's, Shostakovich's, Boccherini's, Saint-Saens', and Schumann. This should keep you busy for a while. Need any recommendations for these concerti then don't hesitate to ask.