Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Conventions
- Bartók: Piano Concerto No.1
- Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2
- Bartók: Dance Suite
- Beethoven Symphonies: Some Supplementary Remarks
- Beethoven: Overture Leonore No.2
- Beethoven: Overture Leonore No.3
- Beethoven: Overture King Stephen
- Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
- Berlioz: Harold in Italy
- Berlioz: Overtures
- Bloch Schelomo: Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra
- Brahms: Four Symphonies
- Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor, Op.15
- Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op.77
- Brahms: Hungarian Dances: A Brief Guide
- Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op.26
- Busoni: Piano Concerto, Op.39
- Debussy: Prélude À L’Après-Midi D’un Faune
- Dvořák: Scherzo Capriccioso, Op.66
- Dvořák: Symphonic Variations, Op.78
- Dvořák: Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op.11
- Dvořák: Serenade for Strings in E, Op.22
- Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme (‘Enigma’), Op.36
- Elgar: Concert-Overture Froissart
- Elgar: Concert-Overture Cockaigne
- Elgar: Concert-Overture in the South (Alassio)
- Elgar: Sea Pictures
- Elgar: Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op.20
- Fauré: Fantaisie for Flute, Orch. Louis Aubert
- Franck: Symphony in D Minor
- Haydn: Symphonies with High Horns
- Haydn: Symphony No.100 in G (‘Military’)
- Haydn: Symphony No.104 in D (‘London’)
- Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E Flat
- Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A
- Mahler: Symphony No.2 in C Minor
- Martinù: Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3 in a Minor, Op.56 (‘Scottish’)
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in a, Op.90 (‘Italian’)
- Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op.64
- Mendelssohn: Overture The Hebrides (‘Fingal’s Cave’), Op.26
- Mozart: Piano Concertos
- Mussorgsky, Orch. Ravel Pictures from an Exhibition
- Nielsen: Sinfonia Espansiva (Symphony No.3)
- Prokofiev: Classical Symphony (Symphony No.1, Op.25)
- Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, Op.67
- Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 in E Minor, Op.27
- Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor, Op.18
- Ravel: Piano Concerto
- Ravel: La Valse
- Ravel: Le Tombeau De Couperin
- Ravel: Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte
- Respighi: Fontane Di Roma
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphonic Suite: Scheherazade, Op.35
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, Op.34
- Rossini: Overture William Tell
- Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3 in C Minor, Op.78
- Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No.1 in a Minor, Op.33
- Schubert: Overture Die Zauberharfe, D.644 (‘Rosamunde’)
- Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D Minor, Op.120
- Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op.52
- Schumann: Cello Concerto in a Minor, Op.129
- Schumann: Overture Genoveva, Op.81
- Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.1 in E Flat, Op.107
- Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D, Op.43
- Sibelius: Symphony No.3 in C, Op.52
- Sibelius: Symphony No.4 in a Minor, Op.63
- Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E Flat, Op.82
- Sibelius: Symphony No.6 in D Minor, Op.104
- Sibelius: Symphony No.7 in C, Op.105
- Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op.47
- Sibelius: Tapiola, Op.112
- Smetana: Má Vlast: 2. Vltava
- Smetana: Má Vlast: 3. Šárka
- Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op.40
- Strauss: Horn Concerto No.1 in E Flat, Op.11
- Strauss: Oboe Concerto
- Strauss: Metamorphosen: Study for 23 Solo Strings
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.2 in C Minor, Op.17
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.3 in D, Op.29
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4 in F Minor, Op.36
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5 in E Minor, Op.64
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B Minor, Op.74, ‘Pathétique’
- Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat Minor, Op.23
- Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
- Tchaikovsky: Fantasy-Overture After Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
- Tippett: Symphony No.2 in C
- Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (Symphony No.2)
- Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No.3)
- Vaughan Williams: Tuba Concerto
- Wagner: Prelude Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
- Walton: Cello Concerto
- Weber: Overture Der Beherrscher Der Geister
- Weber: Overture Der Freischütz
- Weber: Overture Oberon
- Bibliography
Schumann: Cello Concerto in a Minor, Op.129
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Conventions
- Bartók: Piano Concerto No.1
- Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2
- Bartók: Dance Suite
- Beethoven Symphonies: Some Supplementary Remarks
- Beethoven: Overture Leonore No.2
- Beethoven: Overture Leonore No.3
- Beethoven: Overture King Stephen
- Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
- Berlioz: Harold in Italy
- Berlioz: Overtures
- Bloch Schelomo: Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra
- Brahms: Four Symphonies
- Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor, Op.15
- Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op.77
- Brahms: Hungarian Dances: A Brief Guide
- Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op.26
- Busoni: Piano Concerto, Op.39
- Debussy: Prélude À L’Après-Midi D’un Faune
- Dvořák: Scherzo Capriccioso, Op.66
- Dvořák: Symphonic Variations, Op.78
- Dvořák: Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op.11
- Dvořák: Serenade for Strings in E, Op.22
- Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme (‘Enigma’), Op.36
- Elgar: Concert-Overture Froissart
- Elgar: Concert-Overture Cockaigne
- Elgar: Concert-Overture in the South (Alassio)
- Elgar: Sea Pictures
- Elgar: Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op.20
- Fauré: Fantaisie for Flute, Orch. Louis Aubert
- Franck: Symphony in D Minor
- Haydn: Symphonies with High Horns
- Haydn: Symphony No.100 in G (‘Military’)
- Haydn: Symphony No.104 in D (‘London’)
- Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E Flat
- Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A
- Mahler: Symphony No.2 in C Minor
- Martinù: Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3 in a Minor, Op.56 (‘Scottish’)
- Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in a, Op.90 (‘Italian’)
- Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op.64
- Mendelssohn: Overture The Hebrides (‘Fingal’s Cave’), Op.26
- Mozart: Piano Concertos
- Mussorgsky, Orch. Ravel Pictures from an Exhibition
- Nielsen: Sinfonia Espansiva (Symphony No.3)
- Prokofiev: Classical Symphony (Symphony No.1, Op.25)
- Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, Op.67
- Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 in E Minor, Op.27
- Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor, Op.18
- Ravel: Piano Concerto
- Ravel: La Valse
- Ravel: Le Tombeau De Couperin
- Ravel: Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte
- Respighi: Fontane Di Roma
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphonic Suite: Scheherazade, Op.35
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, Op.34
- Rossini: Overture William Tell
- Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3 in C Minor, Op.78
- Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No.1 in a Minor, Op.33
- Schubert: Overture Die Zauberharfe, D.644 (‘Rosamunde’)
- Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D Minor, Op.120
- Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op.52
- Schumann: Cello Concerto in a Minor, Op.129
- Schumann: Overture Genoveva, Op.81
- Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No.1 in E Flat, Op.107
- Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D, Op.43
- Sibelius: Symphony No.3 in C, Op.52
- Sibelius: Symphony No.4 in a Minor, Op.63
- Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E Flat, Op.82
- Sibelius: Symphony No.6 in D Minor, Op.104
- Sibelius: Symphony No.7 in C, Op.105
- Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op.47
- Sibelius: Tapiola, Op.112
- Smetana: Má Vlast: 2. Vltava
- Smetana: Má Vlast: 3. Šárka
- Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op.40
- Strauss: Horn Concerto No.1 in E Flat, Op.11
- Strauss: Oboe Concerto
- Strauss: Metamorphosen: Study for 23 Solo Strings
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.2 in C Minor, Op.17
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.3 in D, Op.29
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4 in F Minor, Op.36
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5 in E Minor, Op.64
- Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B Minor, Op.74, ‘Pathétique’
- Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat Minor, Op.23
- Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
- Tchaikovsky: Fantasy-Overture After Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
- Tippett: Symphony No.2 in C
- Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony (Symphony No.2)
- Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No.3)
- Vaughan Williams: Tuba Concerto
- Wagner: Prelude Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
- Walton: Cello Concerto
- Weber: Overture Der Beherrscher Der Geister
- Weber: Overture Der Freischütz
- Weber: Overture Oberon
- Bibliography
Summary
The Cello Concerto was composed in a burst of creative inspiration at the beginning of the last truly happy period of Schumann's life, just after he had moved from Dresden to Düsseldorf in September 1850 to take up his appointment as music director there. He completed it in just two weeks, then immediately wrote the ‘Rhenish’ Symphony. Though the concerto was not written with any known context, occasion, or even cellist in mind, it was perhaps not a coincidence that just three months earlier, at a concert to celebrate his 40th birthday, his friend Andreas Grabau had played the only other surviving work he wrote for solo cello, the Fünf Stücke im Volkston, op.102. Four years passed before publication, by which time Schumann was tortured by ‘inner voices’, but he was able to see the work through the press, and it was published in 1854 though not performed until 1860, four years after his death.
Apropos the Saint-Saëns concerto (above), it is interesting to note that Schumann did originally entitle this work Konzertstück; it is a few minutes longer than Saint- Saëns’s, but the way in which all the movements are linked is of course similar.
sources
A Autograph score, housed in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Krakow; at the bottom of each page, below Pk, is Schumann's own Pf reduction
V First edition Vc + Pf reduction, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig in 1854
S Solo Vc part, published together with V Where V = S (almost always), they are referred to below as E.
P First edition orchestral parts, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854
No full score was published until:
Br Breitkopf & Härtel Gesamtausgabe full score, published in 1883; the Eulenburg miniature has almost the identical text
Pe Vc + Pf reduction published by C.F. Peters, Leipzig c.1887, essentially based on Br; for this report a more recent printing was used with a separate Vc part edited by Rudolf Metzmacher c.1965, published by Peters, Frankfurt; this often (interestingly) reverts to E
EE Miniature score, published by Eulenburg c.1938; text taken from Br
Ub Breitkopf & Härtel Urtext edition Vc + Pf reduction, edited by Joachim Draheim and published in 1995; generally, simply follows E
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- Information
- Orchestral Masterpieces under the Microscope , pp. 429 - 434Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023