By Charlotte Smith
Published: Thursday, 07 November 2024 at 11:50 AM
Ranked: the ten best cello concertos of all time – and the revelatory recordings you need
Unlike its smaller cousin the violin, the cello’s lower register has to fight a little harder to make itself heard above the sound of a mighty symphony orchestra. However, the instrument’s gorgeous, soulful sound has still proven irresistible to composers, who have valiantly taken up the challenge with some glorious results in concerto form. Here are ten of the very best greatest cello concertos in the classical repertoire…
The ten best cello concertos ever written
10. Schumann: Cello Concerto
Completed over a period of just two short weeks in 1850, this singular work was premiered in April 1860, four years after Schumann’s death. The concerto is characterised by a lengthy exposition and an intensely lyrical second movement. The whole is held together by recurring thematic material that is developed throughout.
Despite this, the work explores a range of moods and charts a complex emotional journey. Despite its inherent difficulty, the concerto avoids showy virtuosic display. As Schumann famously declared, ‘I cannot write a concerto for the virtuosos. I must try for something else.’
Schumann Cello Concerto: Recommended recording
Mischa Maisky / Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
9. Lutosławski: Cello Concerto
The next entry in our list of greatest cello concertos reaches far into the 20th century. Premiered in London in 1970 by Rostropovich, this is one of Lutosławski’s most celebrated works. A continuous four-movement piece, scored for large orchestra, it consists of multiple musical ideas which are combined with impressive economy to form a complex tapestry of sound.
Opening, rather unusually, with unaccompanied cello, the orchestra gradually enters the fray by way of trumpets, followed by the brass section and percussion.
Lutosławski Cello Concerto: Recommended recording
Rafał Kwiatkowski / Warsaw Philharmonic / Antoni Wit
8. Bruch: Kol Nidrei
Next in our list of greatest cello concertos is a piece that is not strictly a cello concerto at all! Nonetheless, this dramatic work for cello and orchestra earns a place in our list due to its ubiquity on concert stages around the world. Max Bruch, who was not Jewish but rather a Protestant, composed a series of variations on two main Jewish folk themes in his 1880 work.
‘Even though I am a Protestant, as an artist I deeply felt the outstanding beauty of these melodies and therefore I gladly spread them through my arrangement,’ he wrote in a letter.
Bruch Kol Nidrei: Recommended recording
Jacqueline du Pré / Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim
7. Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme
The second non-concerto on our list also earns its place through sheer popularity with both soloists and audiences. That, and because it’s the closest work to a cello concerto that Tchaikovsky composed. The piece is Classical in style and the Rococo theme is actually an original tune in the late Baroque style.
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The work’s first performer was Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a colleague of Tchaikovsky’s at the Moscow Conservatory, in 1877. Comprising a theme and eight variations, the work features no orchestral interludes, meaning the soloist performs continuously without breaks. Also a challenge is the work’s range – mostly performed at the upper end of the cellist’s register in the difficult thumb position.
Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations: Recommended recording
Gautier Capuçon / Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra / Valery Gergiev
6. Walton: Cello Concerto
The third of William Walton’s concertos for solo strings (following the 1929 Viola Concerto and 1939 Violin Concerto), his Cello Concerto was composed in 1956 and premiered by Gregor Piatigorsky, who worked closely with Walton during the composition process.
Considered by some to be old-fashioned for its time, the concerto is certainly warm and tuneful. However, it deviates from the standard Romantic pattern of a fast opening movement followed by a slow middle movement. Instead the opening is more expressive, followed by a brisk central scherzo. The third movement consists of a theme and four related improvisations, followed by a lengthy coda.
Walton Cello Concerto: Recommended recording
Gregor Piatigorsky / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Charles Munch
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5. Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich wrote both his cello concertos for the great Mstislav Rostropovich. The latter premiered this second work in Moscow in 1966 for the composer’s 60th birthday. The three-movement work is generally thought to signify the beginning of Shostakovich’s late style.
More subdued than the bombastic First Concerto, the dark and dramatic Second defies expectations with a quiet, brooding introduction for the soloist and two large outer movements sandwiching a brief scherzo. Shostakovich wrote of the work that he could also have named it ‘the Fourteenth Symphony with a solo cello part’.
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2: Recommended recording
Mstislav Rostropovich / Prague Symphony Orchestra / Evgeny Svetlanov
4. Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1
Composed when Saint-Saëns was 37, this work was first performed in January 1873 at the Paris Conservatoire. Rather than the standard three-movement structure, the concerto instead works as a single movement in three sections that share related ideas.
The turbulent opening, in which the soloist states the theme rather than following an orchestra introduction, gives way to a muted minuet with cello cadenza before the opening statement reappears followed by several new themes. A highly virtuosic work, in which the soloist is always centre stage, the concerto is a particularly exciting vehicle for leading cellists wanting to showcase their technique and musical range.
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Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1: Recommended recording
Pieter Wispelwey / Flanders Symphony Orchestra / Seikyo Kim
3. Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1
Third in our list of greatest cello concertos is a work that lay unheard for two centuries.
Composed in the early 1760s, Haydn’s First Cello Concerto was lost for two hundred years until its rediscovery in 1961. One of the great Classical cello works, the three-movement concerto actually has its roots in the Baroque concerto form of Bach with its orchestral ritornellos and single-themed movements. However, it pushes this structure to the limits with a seemingly boundless capacity for secondary ideas.
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It’s full of virtuosity, from playing at the top of the fingerboard, to dashing runs and quick changes of register. And it’s been a a guaranteed crowd pleaser since its rediscovery some 60 years ago.
Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1: Recommended recording
Steven Isserlis / Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Roger Norrington
2. Dvořák: Cello Concerto
One of the most performed cello concertos (alongside the Elgar, above), this is one of two highly successful works composed by Dvořák during his time in the US (the other being the ‘New World’ Symphony). The work was intended for his friend Hanuš Wihan, but was premiered in London by Leo Stern in 1896.
A large, tuneful, Romantic work, scored for full symphony orchestra, the concerto is infused with a sense of sadness and loss, not only for Dvořák’s Czech homeland, but also for his sister-in-law Josefina, who was dying at the time of its composition, and to whom Dvořák had proposed before being rejected and turning instead to her sister Anna. Upon hearing the work, Dvořák’s mentor Brahms is reported to have said: ‘If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!’
The Dvořák Cello Concerto made an appearance at the 2024 BBC Proms. It saw a fine performance from Anastasia Kobekina, with the Czech Philharmonic and conductor Jakub Hrůša, for Prom 49 (Tue 27 Aug).
Dvořák Cello Concerto: Recommended recording
Alisa Weilerstein / Czech Philharmonic / Jiří Bělohlávek
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Elgar: Cello Concerto
Perhaps the most famous of all works for the cello, and immortalised in the dramatic, highly charged performances of Jacqueline du Pré, Elgar’s Cello Concerto was composed following the First World War. Contemplative and melancholic, the four-movement work was first recorded by Beatrice Harrison with Elgar himself conducting. However, it was du Pré’s 1965 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli that gave the work its popularity.
It has since been recorded and performed in concert by most of the world’s best cellists. That said, Mstislav Rostropovich stopped performing the concerto on hearing Du Pré’s recording. ‘My pupil, Jacqueline du Pré, played it much better than I,’ he noted.
We put du Pré’s recording with the LSO top of our list of Elgar Cello Concerto best recordings. This is another cello concerto that got a great performance at the 2024 BBC Proms, as the centrepiece of Prom 19, on 3 August 2024.
Elgar Cello Concerto: Recommended recording
Jacqueline du Pré / London Symphony Orchestra / John Barbirolli