1750-1799 Cello Concerto

Question 1

Name 6 cello concertos ca.1750-1799.

Answer 1

1. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Cello Concerto No.1 in a (1750)
2. Joseph Haydn: Concerto in C for cello and orchestra, Hob.VIIb:1 (ca.1765)
3. Luigi Boccherini: Concerto No.9 in B-flat for cello and orchestra (ca.1770)
4. Joseph Haydn: Concerto in D for cello and orchestra, Hob.VIIb:2 (1783)
5. Joseph Haydn: Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Bassoon, Violin, and Cello (1792)
6. Antonín Kraft: Cello Concerto (ca.1792)

Question 2

Piece: cello concerto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Answer 2

• Composer: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
• Title: Cello Concerto No.1 in a
• Date: 1750
• The three Cello Concertos of C.P.E. Bach are transcriptions of concertos originally written for harpsichord and strings
• fine examples of idiomatic virtuoso writing for the solo instrument
• Cellists at the King’s court at this time include Carlo Granziani, teacher of the King’s nephew, who succeeded his uncle in 1786 as Friedrich Wilhelm II and whose interest in the cello encouraged Haydn and Mozart to give it prominence in string quartets and Beethoven to compose sonatas for the instrument.
• Each of the concertos is in three movements, and each calls for considerable technical virtuosity, dexterity in the outer movements, with their demand for rapid passage work, and a fine command of melodic line in the manner of the Italian concertos for the instrument by composers such as Vivaldi, Porpora (Haydn’s mentor), and Leonardo Leo. It is particularly in the slow movements that the rhetorical element of Bach’s Empfindsamer stil with its pent emotion and sensibility is evident, reminding us of his own teaching on the subject. in hi Versuch, insisting that the aim of music was to touch the heart of the hearer and thus should be ‘from the soul’.

Question 3

Piece: cello concerto by Haydn, first

Answer 3

• Composer: Joseph Haydn
• Title: Concerto in C for cello and orchestra, Hob.VIIb:1
• Date: ca.1765
• Composed for longtime friend Joseph Franz Weigl, then the principal cellist of Esterházy’s Orchestra.
• The solo cello part is thoroughly idiomatic.
• The concerto reflects the ritornello form of the baroque concerto as well as the emerging structure of the sonata-allegro form.
• As in the baroque concerto grosso, the accompanying ensemble is small: strings, two oboes, and two horns.
• All three movements of this work are written in sonata form.
• Some twenty years separate the origin of the Concerto in D major from its predecessor, the Cello Concerto in C major, Hob.VIIb:1
• rediscovered in 1961.
• The outer movements correspond in some way to the organ and violin concertos of the same period, monothematic and following the example of Tartini and Vivaldi, but there appears in the cello concerto, interestingly also in its slow movement, a thematic dualism with the disparate elements to which we are now accustomed in a sonata-form movement, although this idea was first coined decades after in the heyday of Viennese classicism. More important than the term itself is the philosophical dimension of this duality, which can properly be understood as the symbol of enlightened antithetical thinking. We see the ‘father’ of this musical thinking, and even, thereby, of Viennese classicism, here in a period of upheaval, evidence of the great scope Haydn enjoyed as a court musician.
• The differentiation of thematic working corresponds to a development of the orchestral writing. For the first time in a solo concerto Haydn uses two oboes and two horns and produces, through the occasional separation of oboe and first violin, that division between strings and wind instruments customary in his early symphonies. A further trick deserves mention, the ‘secret entry’ of the solo instrument in the second and third movements. This was a favorite device of Boccherini; Haydn could have encountered his Italian colleague and his cello concertos in 1764 in Vienna - and Mozart later developed this technique to perfection.

Question 4

Piece: cello concerto by Boccherini

Answer 4

• Composer: Luigi Boccherini
• Title: Concerto No.9 in B-flat for cello and orchestra
• Date: ca.1770
• Wrote about 12 concertos for cello and orchestra (ca.1770)
• Praised by Bernhard Romberg for often playing violin repertoire on the cello, at pitch; a skill he developed by substituting for ailing violinists while touring. This skill is evident in the cello parts of his compositions (particularly in the quintets for two cellos, treated often as cello concertos with string quartet accompaniment).
• Well after this concerto was written, around 1785, Boccherini entered the the service of Friedrich Wilhelm, nephew of Frederick the great, who succeeded his uncle as King of Prussia in 1787, as court composer (the same patron of Duport, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven).
• Boccherini’s style is completely characteristic of the period in which he lived, the period that is of Haydn (rather than that of Mozart or Beethoven). He enjoyed a reputation for his facility as a composer, leaving some 460 compositions. A great deal of his music is designed to exploit the technical resources of the cello including a remarkable series of works for string quintet with two cellos, the first of which is given a concertante part.
• For Boccherini, we enter a time where the instrument’s potential had been released, thanks to that composer’s technical prowess, including the extensive use of thumb position. The four sonatas are tours de force, often requiring extreme ranges and double- or triple-stop passages. However, the composer himself makes almost no mention of them. It is as if these sonatas meant hardly more to him than a daily stretching exercise for an experienced cellist, as if they were mere finger exercises by a composer who had mastered this instrument in all its subtleties.
• This work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version. Grützmacher chose this concerto to be arranged to fit the style of a Romantic virtuoso concerto, in 1895, and in this form, widely heard, it bears only a tenuous resemblance to the original manuscript. Grützmacher merged Boccherini’s Ninth Cello Concerto with other Boccherini Cello Concertos, and nowadays, the two works are distinguished by their origin: Original vs. arr. Grützmacher.
• Despite all the changes, this Concerto holds up as one of Boccherini’s best known works.
• Boccherini’s original work is slowly beginning to resurface.
• The Boccherini Ninth Cello Concerto has long been an integral part of standard cello instruction, because of creeping use of the full 4+ octave range of the cello, rather than large jumps between different finger positions.

Question 5

Piece: cello concerto by Haydn, second

Answer 5

• Composer: Joseph Haydn
• Title: Concerto in D for cello and orchestra, Hob.VIIb:2
• Date: 1783
• Written for and premiered by cellist Antonín Kraft, who was a cellist in Esterházy’s Orchestra and a founding member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet.
• its authenticity was for long disputed (formerly attributed to A.Kraft). This problem was settled by the discovery in 1953 of the lost autograph
• The work not only makes the greatest demands on the soloist, particularly in the matter of the thumb position, double stopping and octave passages, but, as almost no other concerto of Haydn, is symphonic in scope.
• 1. The first movement is in concerto sonata form. The development contains intensive working out of motifs and frequent modulations, as regularly expected. The periodic structure of the central motifs too and their containment within a definite tonic-dominant structure provide a principal and secondary theme in the classical sense.
• 2. The second movement is generally in rondo form, however, it also tends towards the sonata-form movement model.
• 3. For the last movement, rondo form is chosen, which, apart from some exceptions, was a choice that remained obligatory well into the nineteenth century.

Question 6

Piece: cello concerto by Haydn, sinfonia concertante

Answer 6

• Composer: Joseph Haydn
• Title: Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Bassoon, Violin, and Cello
• Date: 1792
• This piece was composed while Haydn was in London. It is believed to be a response to similar works composed by Ignaz Pleyel, a former student of Haydn’s, who London newspapers were promoting as a ‘rival’ to Haydn.
• solo instruments are treated in pairs
• final cadenza for all four instruments before the movement comes to an end
• technically demanding writing, particularly for the solo violin, and a brief passage of recitative that might even have suggested something to Beethoven (The violin line contains similar contours to the recitative in the 9th Symphony)

Question 7

Piece: cello concerto by Kraft

Answer 7

• Composer: Antonín Kraft
• Title: Cello Concerto
• Date: ca.1792
• Kraft was principal cellist under Joseph Haydn. Haydn, Beethoven, and other composers dedicated their cello works to him. The cello parts to Haydn’s D major Cello Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Op.56 were written to fit his technique (however, his son Nikolaus Kraft is claimed to have played the premiere of the Beethoven Triple). Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto was attributed to Kraft for almost a century. Kraft’s cello concerto had an undoubted influence on the great Haydn. He was a founding member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet who premiered many of Beethoven and Schubert’s works.
• One of the most technically challenging pieces of this early period.

Question 8

How many cello concertos did Boccherini write?

Answer 8

Boccherini wrote pproximately 12 cello concertos (ca.1770)

Question 9

For what cellist was Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto written?

Answer 9

The Haydn in C major cello concerto was composed for longtime friend Joseph Franz Weigl, then the principal cellist of Esterházy’s Orchestra.

Question 10

For what cellist was Haydn’s D major Cello Concerto written?

Answer 10

The Haydn D major cello concerto was written for and premiered by cellist composer Antonín Kraft, who was a cellist in Esterházy’s Orchestra and a founding member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. The concerto was actually formerly attributed to Kraft.

Question 11

Name 3 of Haydn’s cellists.

Answer 11

• Joseph Franz Weigl
• Antonín Kraft
• Nikolaus Kraft

Question 12

How many cello concertos did CPE Bach write?

Answer 12

CPE Bach wrote 3 cello concertos.

• Cello Concerto No.1 in a (1750)
• Cello Concerto No.2 in B-flat (1751)
• Cello Concerto No.3 in A (1753)