The Cello Concerto in D major is Arthur Sullivan’s only concerto. It was premièred on November 24, 1866 at the Crystal Palace with August Manns conducting and was one of Sullivan's earliest major works. Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (May 13, 1842 – November 22, 1900) was an English composer best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist W. S. Gilbert. ... The term concerto (plural is concerti or concertos) usually refers to a musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. ... November 24 is the 328th day (329th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park . ...

There are three movements:

• Allegro moderato
• Andante espressivo
• Finale: molto vivace

Allegro may mean: a musical tempo Allegro library, a computer game programming library Allegro (airline), a charter airline based in Mexico City Allegro (auction), a Polish online auction website, also known as Aukro (Czech Republic), TeszVesz (Hungary) and Av-Av (Russia and Ukraine) Allegro (musical), a 1947 musical by Rodgers... This article is about tempo in music. ... Vivace is Italian for lively. Vivace is used as an Italian musical term indicating a movement that is in a lively mood (and so usually in a fast tempo). ...

History

At the concert at which Sullivan’s Irish Symphony was first performed earlier in 1866, the Italian cellist Alfredo Piatti played the Schumann Cello Concerto, which prompted Sullivan to compose a new concerto for Piatti. None of the cello concertos frequently played today had been composed before the 1860s. The Dvořák and Saint-Saëns cello concertos were yet to come, as, of course, were the famous twentieth century concertos of Elgar and Shostakovich; concertos from earlier centuries such as those of Vivaldi and Haydn had fallen into neglect. Even the Schumann, composed sixteen years before Sullivan’s, was far from a regular repertoire piece at the time. A work written by the rising star of English music, played by a famous virtuoso such as Piatti, might therefore have been expected to take a firm place in the repertory, but it was played only thrice more during the composer’s lifetime.^[1] Carlo Alfredo Piatti (January 8, 1822 – July 18, 1901) was an Italian violoncellist. ... For others with the same name see Robert Schumann (disambiguation). ... The Cello Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann was completed in 1850, shortly after Schumann became the music director of Düsseldorf. ... Dvořák is a common Czech surname (the feminine form is Dvořáková) derived from dvůr (=court, estate). ... Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (IPA: [ʃaʁl. ... Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, Bt OM GCVO (June 2, 1857 – February 23, 1934) was a British composer, born in the small Worcestershire village of Broadheath to William Elgar, a piano tuner and music dealer, and his wife Ann. ... Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich (Russian Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович) (September 25, 1906 – August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. ... Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678, Venice – July 28, 1741, Vienna), nicknamed Il Prete Rosso, meaning The Red Priest, was an Italian priest and baroque music composer. ... (Franz) Joseph Haydn (in German, Josef; he never used the Franz) (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the classical period. ...

The concerto was never published, and in 1964 the manuscript score and orchestral parts were destroyed in a fire. However, the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras had conducted the work eleven years previously, and in the 1980s he made a reconstruction of the concerto, with the aid of the Sullivan expert David Mackie. A copyist’s manuscript of the solo part had survived (in the Pierpont Morgan Library in America) which had indications of some of the orchestral scoring. The reconstructed work was given at an LSO concert at the Barbican, London, on 20 April 1986. Julian Lloyd Webber was the soloist, and Mackerras conducted. The same performers recorded the work for EMI immediately afterwards. It was also recorded in 1999 by Martin Ostertag with Klaus Arp conducting the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra and in 2000 by Paul Watkins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Mackerras conducting. The piece has also been performed several other times since its reconstruction. Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE (born November 17, 1925) is an Australian conductor. ... The Pierpont Morgan Library, originally the private library of J. P. Morgan, was converted to a public institution in 1924 as a memorial by his son, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... The London Symphony Orchestra (frequently abbreviated to LSO) is a full time orchestra based in London. ... Barbican in Kraków Barbican (from mediæval Latin barbecana) - a fortified outpost or gateway, such as an outer defence to a city or castle and any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defence purposes. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Julian Lloyd Webber (born April 14, 1951) is a British cellist. ... The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is a British music company comprising of the major record company EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Brook Green in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based on Charing Cross Road, London. ... The Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (also known in English as the SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra or SWR Symphony Orchestra, and in German as the Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks or SWR Sinfonieorchester) is a prestigious orchestra located in the Germany cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg. ... The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain. ...

Musical analysis

The proportions of the concerto are unusual: the first movement – customarily the longest and most symphonically structured movement of a concerto – plays for only three and a half minutes. The other two movements run about seven minutes each.

• The Allegro opens with a characteristic burst of energy, but then it ‘simply fades out just when one is expecting the second subject.’^[2] It segues into the next movement, by way of a brief cadenza.

• The slow movement, a sweetly songful andante, was praised at the time of the première, and it was suggested that it should be transcribed for church organ.^[3] The gentle mood makes way, half way through the movement, for a few assertive strophic bars before the mild andante theme returns.

• The finale returns to the energetic vein of the opening of the concerto. Once the brisk mood is established Sullivan brings back the exuberant opening theme of the concerto, before a gentler interlude followed by some energetic but not conspicuously tuneful passagework leading to a lively variant of the opening bars of the finale and, after some further bars of passagework, a conventional closing flourish.

The orchestration and the string writing for the soloist show Sullivan’s habitual grasp of the capabilities of all instruments, but few commentators have found the actual themes memorable. The Gramophone review of the 1986 recording concludes: ‘Never does the work build up to any really satisfying effect, however much the themes may initially promise’.

Notes

References

• Jacobs, Arthur: Arthur Sullivan, OUP, Oxford, 1986 ISBN 0-19-282033-8
• LSO programme note, 20 April 1986.
• Higgins, Tom: Notes to EMI recording, CDM 7 64726 2
• Young, Percy M: Sir Arthur Sullivan, J M Dent & Sons, London 1971 ISBN 0-460-03932-2

External references

• Discussion at the G&S Discography
• Article on the cello concerto
• Clip of Mackerras & Lloyd Webber performing the concerto