Cello Concerto (Lalo)

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Édouard Lalo's Cello Concerto in D minor is the only cello concerto written by Lalo. The piece was written in 1877, inspired by Camille Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto in A minor.

The Concerto in D Minor written by Édouard Lalo is considered a “standard” cello concerto. Although it fits into this category, it is less well known than concertos such as the Dvorak, Elgar, and Schumann that are placed in the group of standard cello concertos. The Lalo Cello Concerto in D Minor is an excellent concerto that is often overlooked in lieu of other cello concertos. The Lalo Cello Concerto in D Minor has three movements. The first movement opens with a lento and shapes into an allegro maestoso, which continues throughout the rest of the first movement. The first movement opens with several measures of orchestral music before the solo cello makes its powerful debut in the concerto. The same opening phrase is repeated several times throughout the movement, only starting on different notes. The slow tempo, set at dotted quarter equals 56 by the Bärenreiter edition of the concerto, is often subject to change due to accelerandos speeding up the tempo and ad libitums, “with liberty,” that stretch and compress the phrases. The allegro maestoso section of the first half is much longer than the opening lento section. The lento feeling comes back for a few phrases during the allegro maestoso section leading into a docissimo section that carefully blending back into the allegro tempo. The end of the first movement contains a large section of arpeggiated sixteenth note runs that are very quick and of difficulty. The runs are arpeggiated because they play broken scales in intervals of thirds and fourths. The first movement has a dramatic finale setting the stage for the rest of the concerto. The second movement is overall much lighter in feeling than the first movement. The movement starts with an andantino section that is slow and melancholy but progress into an lively allegro presto and returns back to the andantino tempo which not only changes the tempo, but the mood and feel of the music. Before the end of the second movement, the allegro presto returns and gives the movement a light and happy conclusion. The opening passage, or group of phrases, is marked “espressivo” which means that it is to be played with a great deal of expression and emotion. The passage starts out with a soft piano and gradually crescendos into a strong but still melancholy forte. There is only a taste of that forte for it is quickly subdued into a piano marked “dolce” or sweetly. The allegro presto opens with a long sustained low G sustained from the final cadence of the last passage of the opening andantino section. The note suddenly changes after three and a half measures into a lively, carefree section that lasts until the andantino is brought back. The second andantino section has more dynamic contrast. Its lowest pianos are just as soft but the loud fortissimo shows itself where it did not during the opening andantino section. The change back to the final allegro presto section is much more rapid than the first time it moves from andantino to allegro presto. There is no long sustained note, it trills quickly into the section. The melody of the second allegro presto is very much similar to the first allegro presto passage. The solo cello ends on pizzicato, or plucked, chords with the orchestra. The third movement opens with a slow andante cello solo; the orchestra joins in and then takes over as the movement progresses into a lively rondo marked allegro vivace, meaning fast and vivacious. The cello solo comes back in with a forceful entry into the theme of the rondo. The allegro vivace tempo continues throughout the rest of the movement. There are crescendos and decrescendos that are added to add more interest to the movement as well as musicality markings such as appassionato, dolce, con fuco, and appassionato. There are a series of runs reminiscent of the finale of the first movement at the end of the third movement, also the finale of the concerto. The solo cello ends around five measures before the orchestra ends. The finale is fortissimo and there are several accerandos leading up to the truly grand finale of Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D Minor. … section about obscurity, difficulty finding recordings, not many live performances, etc. The Lalo Cello Concerto is a truly wonderful concerto that is often forgotten due to the attention given to other cello concertos.

It has the following movements: