Cello Concerto

• Barber composed his Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, op. 22, in 1945.¹
• This piece was commissioned at request of Serge Koussevitsky (1874-1951) for cellist Raya Garbousova (1909-1997) and premiered by Boston SO.²
• To prepare to compose, Barber invited Garbousova to play for him so he could study her playing and the instrument. ³
  • Barber often did this when writing concertos – he asked Vladimir Horowitz to play for him when he was writing his piano concerto.⁴

“Sam has just finished a wow of a cello concerto which will make the cellist’s hair stand.”

Gian Carlo Menotti, Barber’s partner⁵

1. Barbara B. Heyman, “Barber, Samuel,” Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press (2001), accessed July 18, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000001994.
2. Barbara B. Heyman, Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 248.
3. Ibid., 249.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 252.