DVORAK, A.: Cello Concerto, Op. 104: I. Allegro (Masterclass with Christian-Pierre La Marca, Selo) (La Marca, Sypniewski)
Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104, B. 191
Composer: Dvorak, Antonin
La Marca, Christian-Pierre
Sypniewski, Caroline
Selo, Karine
Catalogue Number: DAK054-01
The wonderful French soloist
It was March 1894 when Antonin Dvorak attended a concert in New York, in which his New World Symphony was programmed alongside the Cello Concerto by Victor Herbertt, an Irish colleague from the Conservatory who was also a very popular cello player in the USA. Impressed by his playing and inspired by the instrument's role in the music, Dvorak was then determined to create his own piece for Cello, a task he started once he was back from his summer retreat in Bohemia.
Although this was Antonin Dvorak's last composition written in the United States, the Concerto Op.104 is fully inspired by the composer's native slavic tradition, hence the emotional and nostalgic nationalistic character of the work. Completed on February 1895, the third movement contains a final coda, quoting the song Leave Me Alone in the memory of his sister-in-law Josefina Kaunitzova, the composer's love from his young days.
