Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191
The Cello Concertos of Antonin Dvořák and Sir Edward Elgar represent the summit of romantic achievement in the form. The concertante cello found a place in later Baroque repertoire, with solo cello concertos by Vivaldi, Tartini and others, leading to the classical concertos of composers in Mannheim, Vienna and Berlin and the concertos of Haydn and Boccherini. It was not until 1850 that the cello concerto received the attention of major romantic composers, with Robert Schumann's Cello Concertoof that year. Brahms paired the instrument with the violin in his Double Concerto of 1887, but it was Dvořák who in 1895 first provided a concerto in which the solo cello forms an essential part of a full symphonic texture.
Dvořák wrote his B minor Cello Concerto, his second attempt at the form, in America during the winter months of his new contract, at the request of his colleague in Prague, the cellist Hanus Wihan. After his return home, Wihan suggested various changes, including additional cadenzas written by himself, but these Dvořák adamantly rejected. The first performance of the concerto took place not in Prague but at the Queen's Hall in London on 19 March 1896, with the English-born cellist Leo Stern, who played the work on subsequent tours. Wihan first performed the concerto in public three years later, although he had in fact been the first to play through the work with the composer in the previous August. In June, after his return from America, the composer had already rewritten the ending of the work.
The first movement of the concerto opens with an orchestral exposition, the first theme played by the clarinets and restated emphatically by the rest of the orchestra before the appearance of the second theme, introduced by a solo French horn. The solo cello enters with the first theme, subject thereafter to a number of improvisatory variations, before the soloist plays the second subject. In the central development section remoter keys follow, the cello playing the principal theme in a poignantly slower version, and providing an accompaniment to further variations by the wind instruments of the orchestra. The soloist finally ushers in the last section with a repetition of the second theme, an unexpected turn of events. It is, however, the first theme that re-appears to end the movement. The slow movement opens with the principal theme played by the clarinet, accompanied by bassoons and oboes. The theme is then taken up by the solo cello. A middle section, in marked dramatic contrast, makes use of the opening phrase of a song written by Dvořák in 1887. The principal theme appears again, played by three French horns, to be followed by a cello cadenza and a brief coda. The finale of the concerto is in free rondo form, its principal theme finally appearing in its full form when the soloist enters. This theme serves as a link between a series of episodes, rich in variety and in opportunities for the soloist. The extended coda includes a reference to the opening of the first movement, played by the clarinets before the triumphant conclusion of the whole work.
