Romance for Cello and Piano

About this piece

Delius wrote this Romance in 1896 and dedicated it to the cellist Joseph Hollmann, but it remained unpublished until Boosey & Hawkes issued it posthumously in 1976. That year it was premiered at the Helsinki festival, and Julian Lloyd Webber and Yitkin Seow gave the first British performance two days later at the Purcell Room in London. Reviewing that concert in The Times, Keith Horner called it a modest recital piece in the vein of Delius's later Caprice and Elegy. It is a lyrical E-major 'Lento tranquillo' in 3/4, with a long-breathed cello melody and richly chromatic piano harmony. Notable recordings include Julian Lloyd Webber's and Yo-Yo Ma with Kathryn Stott. The score is in the Delius Trust Collected Edition volume 31c, Works for Cello & Piano (Boosey & Hawkes, ed. Robert Threlfall), and the piece is set for ABRSM Cello Grade 8 (from 2024).

Technical overview

A single slow movement of about six and a half minutes (Lento tranquillo). The cellist needs a sustained legato line with frequent triplet figures, expressive shifts above the bass staff, a trill and carefully graded dynamics over a dense chromatic piano part.

Technical focus

• Legato
• Shifting
• A String Notes
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Rhythm
• 2 Note Slurs
• 3 Note Slurs