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History  In 1919, English composer Edward Elgar wrote “Cello Concerto in E minor Op.85”. The piece, written in the romantic style, has since become one of the most popular cello concerti. This particular performance is by American cellist, Yo-Yo Ma.  Born near Worcester to a Catholic family, Elgar felt like an outsider both because his religion and the fact that he had no formal musical education as a composer. This helped him forge a unique style, though he was still influenced by musical greats such as Dvorak, Handel and Brahms.  Elgar achieved success as a violinist and conductor early on in his life, but remained relatively unknown as a composer until he wrote “Enigma Variations,” in his forties. His later compositions “Pomp and Circumstance” and his violin concerto soon followed and were immensely successful.  The composer’s last major work was his Cello Concerto No. 1 n E minor. The concerto is said to have been inspired by the sounds of World War I artillery near his cottage. This cottage is where he wrote the concerto after the melody came to him when he regained consciousness following a surgery. When finally written, the piece had a disastrous premiere. It was largely forgotten until Jacqueline du Pré’s 1965 recording of the piece popularized it. Since then, the Elgar cello concerto has become one of the most important pieces in the solo cello repertoire. Analysis  In terms of form (ternary, or A-B-A), the first movement of the Elgar cello concerto is rather conventional. It moves from its introduction in E minor to parallel key in E major and eventually back to the original E minor for a restatement of the theme.  It does not take long, for the listener to realize that this is not, in fact, an ordinary concerto. The piece opens with a heavy recitative from the solo cello starkly different from the orchestral introductions found in most concerti. In it, three long consonant chords, harmonious and sad, are thrown off by one final dissonant chord which sets the uneasy mood for the piece.  The opening chords do more than give the listener an idea of the mood of the piece; they also establish the warm timbre of the cello, which Elgar continues to use effectively throughout the movement. The solo cello seems to paint a landscape of reds, yellows and browns in the listener’s mind.  The Elgar concerto’s melody lends to its anguished feeling. It begins at a piano in the cello’s high registers and slowly gets stronger as it wanders down to the middle. Finally, near the end of the melody line, the cello reaches a crescendo. Here, Yo-Yo Ma slides into many of his notes. This is a stylistic choice that suits the romantic era piece well. At last, a high E minor scale marks the transition from solo cello to orchestra.  Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of the Elgar cello concerto gives a good idea of the technical brilliance and emotion which have made him one of the world’s preeminent classical musicians. His sound is clear, his bowing is smooth and his intonation is every bit as good as you would expect from a cellist of his calibre. If there is one thing to complain about, it would be that the way he moves around and contorts his face while he plays, as both can be distracting from the music.

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