Cello Concerto in e minor, Op. 85

Composer: ELGAR, Sir Edward
  • Elgar composed his Cello Concerto in e minor, Op.85, in 1918-19.1 It was Elgar’s last major composition.2
  • Elgar dedicated the Cello Concerto to Sir Sidney Colvin3 (1845-1927), an art critic and literary critic whose writings included a biography of Keats.
  • Elgar’s Cello Concerto premiered at the opening of the first LSO season after the close of WWI, conducted by the composer. The premiere was not a success because the other conductor on the program took most of the rehearsal time for his repertoire.4
  • Quotes from Ernest Newman, a music critic who heard the premiere of the work:5
    • On the orchestration: “Some of the color is meant to be no more than a vague wash against which the solo cello defines itself.”
    • Newman also said this concerto showed “that poignant simplicity that has come upon Elgar’s music in the last couple of years.” (In contrast to the more bombastic music of Pre-WWI Elgar, includingthe Pomp and Circumstance military marches. Both the war and Elgar’s age were mellowing his music.)

Sources

  1. Diana McVeagh, “Elgar, Sir Edward,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 18, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008709.
  2. Adrian Jack, “Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919),” BBC Radio 3, accessed September 24, 2019, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/elgar/notes/note_celloconc.shtml.
  3. McVeagh, “Elgar, Sir Edward,” Grove Music Online.
  4. Jack, “Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919),” BBC Radio 3.
  5. Ernest Newman, “Music of the Week,” The Observer, November 2, 1919.

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