Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

THE STORY

Symphonic in its length, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor abounds with ravishing melodies, ferocious themes, and vivid color, and shares harmonic and melodic similarities with another famous composition from this period: his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Composed from 1894-95, the Cello Concerto numbers among the last pieces that Dvořák wrote during his stay in the United States.

After Dvořák finished the concerto, he received news of the death of his first love, Josefina Čermáková. In her memory, he revised the work to incorporate a song of his that Josefina had been especially fond of, titled Leave Me Alone, in the middle section of the slow movement.

While Dvořák initially expressed reservations about the cello’s upper and lower registers and worried that the orchestra would drown out the cello, this concerto exhibits mastery in orchestration. Johannes Brahms, a mentor of Dvořák, exclaimed, “If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!”

LISTEN FOR

• The orchestral exposition in the first movement introducing the themes with which the soloist will also enter—a first theme that rises mysteriously from the clarinets and woodwinds and gains dramatic power in the strings and horns, followed by a second theme that appears with the horn singing the majestic melody
• The pastoral woodwind ensemble that begins the second movement—a distressed outburst in the orchestra disrupts the bucolic atmosphere, which returns with bird-like interjections in the flute and bassoon that flit around the cello
• The martial beginning to the finale that concludes the concerto—but not before the violin reminisces on the quote from Leave Me Alone that appeared in the previous movement

INSTRUMENTATION

Solo cello; piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings