Run Time: Approx. 24 minutes

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887, Heitor Villa-Lobos is widely regarded as the most significant Brazilian composer of classical orchestral music. Throughout his career, he produced an astounding catalog of over 2,000 works and was also an accomplished cellist and classical guitarist. His music presents a unique synthesis of Brazilian folk traditions and Western classical techniques, merging the rhythmic vitality and melodic expressiveness of his homeland with sophisticated forms and harmonic language.

In addition to his Brazilian roots, Villa-Lobos was heavily influenced by the works of French Impressionist composers like Debussy and Satie and early 20th-century Russian composers, particularly those involved with the influential Ballets Russes, such as Igor Stravinsky. All these influences converge in his monumental Cello Concerto No. 2, a work that showcases his distinctive style, his grasp of the unique characteristics of the cello, and his ability to seamlessly paint folk idioms onto the canvas of Western classical forms.

The work was commissioned by renowned Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot in 1953 and premiered by Parisot with the New York Philharmonic in 1955. Since its premiere, the concerto has become beloved in the modern repertoire as one of the cello’s most important and challenging works of the 20th century.

At various points, the concerto is songful, lush, heartfelt, and exuberant. Over four movements, it takes the listener on a dramatic journey. From the declarative first movement to the rich, contemplative second, the frenetic scherzo, and the joyfully dancing conclusion, Vila-Lobos presents the cello as an instrument without limits—capable of expressing the full emotional spectrum and inhabiting every musical realm.