While the cello doesn’t have quite the amount of music written for it as the violin, it’s still very well represented in most major musical genres.
Here are a few examples from its repertoire:
The unaccompanied instrument has a series of undoubted masterpieces written for it in the form of six dance suites by J S Bach. Here’s the second in d (with an opportunity to compare performances and interpretations on a Baroque instrument and a modern-day cello):
Prelude 0:00
Allemande 4:00
Courante 7:17
Sarabande 9:21
Menuet 13:30
Gigue 16:54
1 – 00:16 Prélude
2 – 04:38 Allemande
3 – 08:47 Courante
4 – 10:49 Sarabande
5 – 17:28 Menuet I – 18:47 Menuet II
6 – 20:56 Gigue
The Classical period also produced distinguished works for the instrument. Haydn wrote at least three cello concertos, only two of which have survived. This is the fairly recently (1961) rediscovered concerto in C:
I. Moderato 00:00
II. Adagio 10:55
III. Finale. Allegro molto 19:20
Beethoven’s works for the instrument are mainly in chamber music. Apart from the string quartets he also wrote five cello sonatas, sonatas that cover his entire creative output. This middle period, A major sonata (1808) is contemporary with his fifth and sixth symphonies:
Allegro ma non tanto – 00:05
Scherzo. Allegro molto – 12:44
Adagio cantabile – 17:44
Allegro vivace – 19:43
After Beethoven, the arrival of full-blown Romanticism saw the composition of a number of concertos and pieces for solo cello with orchestra with Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns and Lalo all contributing to the repertoire.
The orchestral cello section wasn’t neglected at this time, either. Here they are, singing their hearts out, in the openings of Dvořák’s Eighth and Bruckner’s Seventh Symphonies:
With the arrival of the twentieth century the list of contributors to the concerto genre becomes much longer, ranging from Elgar to Philip Glass – two examples from Russia:
I. Allegretto 00:00
II. Moderato 06:47
III. Cadenza 20:05
IV. Allegro con moto 25:53 ∙
The bass, despite being fundamental (in all senses) to the orchestral strings, because its low pitches are easily absorbed into most textures, doesn’t have the high public profile of its cousin, the cello.
As a solo instrument, here it is appropriating some of the cello’s most famous repertoire:
… it also makes frequent appearances in the larger chamber music ensembles:
… and, though orchestral solos are rare, there are some well known examples:
Concertos tend to be written by bass players (Dragonetti, Bottesini, Koussevitzky). The Koussevitzky concerto is a late Romantic work dating from 1902.
Allegro – 0:55
Andante – 6:46
Allegro – 12:40
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