Bax, Arnold

Bax, Arnold – Concerto for Cello & Orchestra

(b. Streatham, 8 November 1883 – d. Cork, 3 October 1953)
“Have you considered the horror of trying to write a cello concerto? That is my hideous fate”. Thus Arnold Bax wrote to a friend in late 1931. He had been asked to write a concerto for the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó, a request he found difficult to deny because Cassadó had recently been working with the pianist Harriet Cohen, who was Bax’s long-term lover. The combined pressure from Cassadó and Cohen was just too much for Bax, who wrote, “I would never have thought of writing such a thing if I had not been bullied into it”.

The trouble was than writing for cello & orchestra is notoriously difficult because the cello sings in mid-range and does not have great penetrating power through the full orchestra. Edward Elgar solved this problem by having the cello wander through a clear gap between treble and bass. Dvorák too, but, even then, neither composer is successful all the time. However, British composers have a good record of writing for solo cello and orchestra, beginning with Arthur Sullivan and including fine works by Stanford, Delius, Bridge, Britten, Moeran, Finzi, Bliss and Walton. Bax’s concerto contains a strong first movement with pre-echoes of Bax’s 7th symphony, and a lovely slow movement (which the composer typically calls “Nocturne”). But it perhaps suffers from a somewhat insubstantial finale. In any case, it has not had many advocates beyond Beatrice Harrison in Bax’s day and Raphael Wallfisch in recent years.

The first performance was given at the Queen’s Hall on 5 March 1934 by Gaspar Cassadó, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty.

Phillip Brookes, 2026

Performance material has been available from Warner Chappell Music (https://warnerchappell.com).

German … > HERE