Cello Concerto in a minor, Op. 129

Composer: SCHUMANN, Robert
  • Schumann composed this concerto in 1850 and it was published in 1854. He originally entitled it Konzertstück, a term which generally indicated a smaller-form work in the concerto genre.1
  • Schumann completed his draft of this concerto the same day he made his debut as conductor in Düsseldorf.2
    • Schumann’s position as Municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf was the only full-time official position he would hold in his life. Unfortunately, Schumann struggled to keep up with the demands of this position, and his dismissal in 1853 added to the stress that would eventually result in his suicide attempt and commitment to a mental health care institution in early 1854. 
  • The piece premiered four years after Schumann’s death, on June 9, 1860 in Leipzig.3
  • In his analysis of Schumann’s concertos for The Cambridge Companion to Schumann, musicologist Joseph Kerman observes that the Cello Concerto is influenced by Schumann’s style as a composer of Lieder: “The Cello Concerto is driven magnificently by song, by the cello as an inspired singer.”4

Sources

  1. John Daverio and Eric Sams, “Schumann, Robert,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 30, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040704.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Joseph Kerman, “The Concertos,“ in The Cambridge Companion to Schumann, ed. Beate Perry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 181.

Cut IDs

44863