Eleanor's Gift (Concerto for Cello and Orchestra)
by Chen Yi
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Orchestra
- Composed
- 1998
- Duration
- 15'
- Publisher
- Theodore Presser Company
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About this piece
A single-movement cello concerto of about 15 minutes, commissioned by the New Heritage Music Foundation to honour Eleanor Roosevelt at the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Paul Tobias gave the premiere with the Women's Philharmonic under Apo Hsu in San Francisco on 10 December 1998, and the revised version with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony in May 1999; his 2003 recording with the Virginia Symphony and JoAnn Falletta was released by Albany. In her note the composer describes a solo line that begins alone in the high register, is answered by angry brass outbursts, and moves through dialogue with the orchestra to a long meditative passage and a hopeful close, and she dedicates the work's sympathy to women denied their rights and freedoms.
Technical overview
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