Concerto Cello

Arnold Schönberg Cello Concerto after Georg Monn

Cello Concerto after Georg Monn
Allegro moderato 00:00
Andante, alla Marcia 06:55
Tempo di Minuetto 11:48

Fred Sherry, cello
Philharmonia Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor

Painting: Frank Auerbach, Head of J.Y.M ll, 1984-85

The Cello Concerto, ‘freely adapted’ by Schönberg from Georg Monn’s 1746 concerto for clavicembalo in D major, was composed between November 1932 and January 1933. The piece is dedicated to Pablo Casals, to whom Schönberg offered the first performance. […] The composer wrote to the cellist: “I Think it has turned out to be a very brilliant work. In any event, I have taken a great deal of trouble with the sound and am well satisfied with it. […] My principal concern was to get rid of the deficiencies of the Handelian style of the original, just as Mozart did with the Handel’ Messiah. […] I think that I have succeeded in bringing the whole piece somewhat nearer the style of Haydn. […]”
Casals must have gasped at the vertiginous technical demands of the cello part in the first movement, but he waited seven months before sending a negative reply. He is reputed to have played the work once, privately, in his Barcelona home, but this is hardly believable, if only for the reason that if he had discovered the third movement’s lilting Spanish dance tunes and the delightful parody of the Spanish guitar produced by pizzicato glissandos in the cello, he would surely have sent a proper acknowledgement of the honour Schönberg had paid him. The first performance, nearly three years later, was in London, on 7th December, 1935, with Emmanuel Feuermann as the soloist and Edward Clark conducting the BBC Orchestra.
From the Music Notes by Robert Craft