Gypsy Cello

[BobsterLobster]

I play a lot of Gypsy-inspired violin music CDs around the house, and my wife who plays the cello asked me to play similar music for the cello, which has me stumped a bit.

With violin music, I like Gypsy pastiches by composers such as Sarasate, Ravel, Brahms, Bizet, Liszt, Kreisler, Hubay, and so on.
I like violinists such as Roby Lakatos, Oleg Ponomarev, and Eddie South.

Apart from the odd hacked-through arrangement of Zigeunerweisen, I can't seem to find much of this kind of thing for the cello.

It doesn't have to be really Gypsy, but the closer the better! Lots of schmaltzy slides, harmonic/gypsy minor scales and virtuosic passages should do the trick.

Any ideas?

[Gurn Blanston]

None from me, sadly, but I am certainly intrigued at the concept. Hope that someone will have some ideas; I'll follow them too!

[Scion7]

Would have to be something that was created very recently IMO, as the Roma didn't exactly carry cellos around with them as folk instruments in their pre-WW2 wandering days.  Liszt mistakenly utilized many Gypsy themes he thought were Magyar in trying to write nationalist music, and perhaps there are some transcriptions to cello from some of these?   There might be something in Enescu's cello sonatas distantly related to Roma folk tunes but he was stridently searching for Romanian themes for the most part.

This would be a neat thing for some inspired Transylvanian composer to take up.   

Also, due to the Holocaust, there may have been such material that was lost forever - hard to say.

[BobsterLobster]

Would have to be something that was created very recently, as the Roma didn't exactly carry cellos around with them as folk instruments in their pre-WW2 wandering days.

Yes, but I'm only after pastiches or music influenced by Gypsies. It's interesting that my favourite composers for this kind of thing are Sarasate and Ravel, who I don't think had a massive amount of contact with Gypsies. I don't see any reason why a cellist couldn't have written this kind of thing!

[Scion7]

None at all, except many of the Romantics and Modern period composers were also nationalistic to some degree, thus going after their own heritage to exploit for composition.  Enescu was a guy that could have utilized Gypsy music very effectively had he chosen to.  Or Bartok.  But, they didn't to any large extent. 

[BobsterLobster]

Nationalistic... but also obsessed with exoticism, a need they met with Gypsy influences.

[Scion7]

It appears that Rachmaninov's Capriccio on Gypsy Themes was transcribed for harp & cello, but I don't see a recording of it available.

[BobsterLobster]

It appears that Rachmaninov's Capriccio on Gypsy Themes was transcribed for harp & cello, but I don't see a recording of it available.

Shame, sounds interesting! There's a recording on YouTube of the 1st suite for two pianos played by a piano and harp, it's a stunning transcription.