ANTONIN DVORAK  1841 - 1904

CELLO CONCERTO IN B MINOR   Opus 104
 
Allegro
Adagio, ma non troppo
Allegro moderato  

Whether or not he actually asked Dvorák to write this work, it was the cellist Hamus Wilhan (with whom Dvorák had made a concert tour of Bohemia in 1892) for whom the Cello Concerto was intended, and to whom the work is dedicated. It was written between November 1884 and February 1895, during the composer's second American visit, and is thus later than his other two concertos, for piano and violin respectively.
 
The work greatly impressed Brahms, who good-naturedly grumbled: "Why didn't I know it was possible to write a cello concerto like this? If I had known, I would have written one myself long ago!"
 
The orchestration calls for three trombones and tuba as well as three horns, but Dvorák uses this extra brass very sparingly - indeed, he writes for them, while the solo cello is playing, only in about a dozen bars in the slow movement, and another dozen in the finale, and always with complete understanding of their effectiveness in full soft chords.
 
In the opening Allegro movement Dvorák shows himself to be completely at home with the concerto form, having found at last a satisfactory way of compressing the first movement plan. He also treats his themes with such freedom, varying them at each appearance, that it is often difficult to establish which is the authentic version.
 
The clarinets start off in an ominous undertone with a theme which quickly works up to a fortissimo restatement and then drops to a modulating passage which leads to the second subject, a beautiful and expressive horn melody, which is extended in exquisite fashion by clarinet and oboe. The soloist's entry, with a robust version of the opening theme, is marked by a dramatic change of key from D to B, after which the exposition section is quite straightforward. The development reaches the distant key of A flat minor before concluding with a dramatic upwards run from the soloist, leading to - not the expected opening theme in recapitulation, but the second subject, brilliantly spot-lit by the full orchestra.
 
The leisurely and relaxed slow movement, with a dramatic middle section, is typically Slavonic and contains a wealth of invention. The idyllic theme of the first section is first heard on the clarinet, and as so often with Dvorák, the phrases which grow out of the subject prove to be almost as important as the subject itself.
 
The finale, in free rondo form, is notable for a series of codas which become progressively more dreamy, in the middle of which the opening theme of the first movement returns on the clarinets. The work finally ends in brilliant high spirits.