The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is a

cello concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike inst ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...

written in 1966. It is dedicated to cellist

Siegfried Palm Siegfried Palm (25 April 1927 – 6 June 2005) was a German Cello, cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many List of 20th-century classical composers by name, 20th-century composers like Mauricio Kage ...

, who gave the concerto its premiere performance.

History

Originally, Ligeti had planned to compose a single movement work. As progress on composition developed he decided to expand the initial material of the concerto into a movement in its own right and placed the remainder of the material into a second movement. In performance, however, the second movement follows on immediately from the first, without a break. The concerto was given its first performance in Berlin on 19 April 1967 with Siegfried Palm (cello) and the

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin'') is a German symphony orchestra based in Berlin. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie. The orchestra has also ...

conducted by

Henryk Czyż Henryk Czyż (; 16 June 1923 – 16 January 2003) was a Polish musician with a high reputation for conducting and teaching. He was born in Grudziądz. He was also a composer in his own right and wrote a number of books which are highly regard ...

Structure and style

The concerto is written for solo

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

with a small orchestra of flute (doubling

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the s ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

(doubling

cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an al ...

), 2 clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), bassoon,

horn Horn most often refers to: * Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments * Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

, harp and strings. The movements are as follows: A performance typically lasts approximately 16 minutes. The work has been described as an "anti-concerto" due to the nature of the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra. The solo cello begins extremely quietly (the initial entry has the

dynamic Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' " power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dyna ...

marking (8 s)) and continues in a role which is almost disassociated from the orchestra and avoids the usual virtuosic writing associated with a concerto soloist, in favour of creating mood and atmosphere.

In popular culture

Along with other pieces by Ligeti, the cello concerto has been popular with film makers and has featured in *''

A Warning to the Curious "A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book '' A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist ...

'' (dir.

Lawrence Gordon Clark Lawrence Gordon Clark, is an English television director and producer, perhaps best known for his ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' series of mostly M. R. James ghost stories, which were broadcast annually by the BBC throughout the 1970s. These ar ...

, 1972) *''

Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is ...

'' (dir.

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American film director, director, screenwriter, and Film producer, producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include ...

, 1995) *''

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow ''Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow'' is a 2010 Sophie Fiennes documentary about the German industrial artist Anselm Kiefer's creation of a 40 hectare work in progress at an abandoned factory complex outside Barjac, France. Kiefer moved to the So ...

'' (dir.

Sophie Fiennes Sophia Victoria Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (; born 12 February 1967), better known as Sophie Fiennes, is an English film director and producer. She is the sister of actors Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes, director Martha Fiennes and composer Ma ...

, 2010) *''

The Killing of a Sacred Deer ''The Killing of a Sacred Deer'' is a 2017 psychological horror thriller film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, and Bill Camp. The screen ...

'' (dir.

Yorgos Lanthimos Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos ( el, Γιώργος Λάνθιμος, Giórgos Lánthimos, ; born 23 September 1973) is a Greek film director, film producer, screenwriter, photographer, theatre director and former professional basketball player. Sin ...

, 2017)

Selected discography

* Christian Poltéra, cello;

Baldur Brönnimann Baldur Brönnimann (born 1968, Basel) is a Swiss conductor. Biography Born in Basel, Brönnimann studied at the Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel and was a junior fellow in conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. From 2008 ...

, conductor;

BIT20 Ensemble The BIT20 Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1989. It was formed in the merger of the quartet, Bit4, and Ensemble 20. The ensemble has headquarters at Grieghallen. During its history, BIT20 Ensemble has per ...

(

BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden. BIS focuses on European classical music, classical music, both Contemporary classical music, contemporary and Early music, early, especially ...

) *

Jean-Guihen Queyras Jean-Guihen Queyras is a French cellist. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 11 March 1967, and moved with his parents to Algeria when he was 5 years old; the family moved to France 3 years later. He is a professor at the Musikhochschule Fr ...

, cello;

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

, conductor;

Ensemble InterContemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...

(

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family o ...

) *

Nicolas Altstaedt Nicolas Altstaedt (born 1982) is a German classical cellist. Biography and career Altstaedt was born in Heidelberg, Germany. As a soloist, conductor, and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporar ...

, cello;

Fabián Panisello Fabián Panisello (, , born 11 October 1963) is an Argentinian-Spanish composer, conductor, and professor. Professional life Panisello was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied composition in Buenos Aires with Francisco Kröpfl and at the ...

, conductor; Plural Ensemble ( Neos) *

, cello;

Reinbert de Leeuw Reinbert de Leeuw (8 September 1938 – 14 February 2020) was a Dutch conductor, pianist and composer. Life Lambertus Reinier de Leeuw's mother and father were both psychiatrists: Cornelis Homme 'Kees' de Leeuw (1905-1953) and Adriana Judina ...

, conductor; Asko-Schönberg Ensemble (

Teldec Teldec (Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten GmbH) is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group. History Teldec was a producer of (first) shellac and (later) vinyl records. The Teldec manufacturing ...

)

References

{{Authority control Cello concertos Compositions by György Ligeti Music dedicated to ensembles or performers 1966 compositions Compositions that use extended techniques