Cello Concerto

Quick Facts

• Written between 1955-56
• Walton’s third (and final) concerto
• Commissioned by Russian-American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky¹
  • Funny aside – In response to Piatigorsky’s request, Walton wrote, ” I write anything for anybody if they pay me. Naturally I write much better if I am paid in American dollars.”
• Premiered in January 1957 at the Boston Symphony conducted by Charles Munch.²

About the Piece

• Walton considered his cello concerto to be the best of his three concerti, and his wife Susana has a special affection for it as well.
  • Susana noted, “It had come very spontaneously, and he felt it was the closest to his personality.”
  • Listen for – the character/ quality of the soloist in the first movement. Susana noted, “William thought of the cello as a melancholy instrument, full of soul.”
• The concerto was written on Walton’s home on the Italian island of Ischia, which may be reflected in the “pointillistic scoring” in the first movement.³

1. Byron Adams, “Walton, Sir William,” Grove Music Online (2001); accessed January 4, 2024, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040016.
2. “Walton’s Cello Concerto: a guide to Walton’s cello masterpiece and its best recordings,” BBC Music Magazine (2022), accessed January 4, 2023, https://www.classical-music.com/features/recordings/waltons-cello-concerto.
3. Terry Blain, notes in accompanying booklet, Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto No. 1 performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tuomas Hannikainen, BBC 328, 2010, compact disc.