Cello Concerto was composed by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen in 2015 (rev. 2017) - 'To the memory of my mother'. Written to Nicolas Altstaedt on commission from Aarhus Symfoniorkester and Die Duisburger Philharmoniker with support from The Danish Arts Foundation First perfomance in Århus Sept 24 2015. Programme note: This concerto contains a lot of technical and structural stuff that I have forgotten all about now. Without it though the piece would have been a big mess of emotions since it was written while my family and I were taking care of my mother as she was terminally ill. I recognize ithaving become a kind of rondo. The music wanted a place to return to and perhaps it is due to the fact that my mother was always someone I could return to when everything else was exploding. In the end the rondo dies and the music goes somewhere else like all mothers.

This is one of the best Cello concertos of the twentieth century and readily communicates the Bohuslav Martinu strong feelings for his homeland. Written over the Christmas and New year period of 1944-45 in New York it is full ofhis reactions to that last dramatic winter of the war and the desire to go home. It is an expansive work over 35 minutes in length in the standard three movements. Typically for Martinu the first movement is inModerato tempo. The opening gesture is highly characteristic: A pulsing rhythm establishes itself in the orchestra and a striving rising theme with a contradictory rhythm contends with it. The second movement Andante pocomoderato has a general pulse that is not much slower than that of the first. It is episodic with a faster central section and then a truly magical and heartfelt treatment of the main subject in which Martinu expresses hislonging for home. The final movement Allegro is a driving energetic conclusion with a solo cadenza that breaks the ongoing rhythm and provides a touching moment of contemplation before the joyous conclusion. This editioncontains a Piano reduction of the Orchestral part for rehearsal purposes.