Cello Concerto
by Ned Rorem
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Orchestra
- Composed
- 2002
- Duration
- 25'
- Publisher
- Boosey & Hawkes
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About this piece
Commissioned by the Residentie Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony for the cellist David Geringas, who had asked Rorem for a concerto in 2000. Rorem, who already had a Violin Concerto and a Double Concerto, wrote that 'a Cello Concerto would round off a perfect program', and finished it in the summer of 2002. Geringas gave the premiere with the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern on 28 March 2003. Rather than a conventional three-movement form, it has eight short sections with programmatic titles, from 'Curtain Raise' and 'Three Queries, One Response' to 'Valse Rappelée' and 'Adrift'. Alex Ross heard echoes of Messiaen's 'pealing, dissonant fanfares' and Britten's Billy Budd, and singled out three long wordless songs for the soloist. The first recording, by Wen-Sinn Yang with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under José Serebrier (Naxos, 2007), was called 'a clear winner' by Gramophone. Published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Technical overview
Eight connected sections of about 22 to 25 minutes that alternate nostalgia with effervescence: fanfare-like orchestral writing, a waltz, and extended cantabile songs for the soloist.