Farewell to philosophy. Par BRYARS GAVIN. I have a great fondness for the lower string instruments: I am a bass player, my mother is a cellist, as are both my daughters; my own ensemble includes two violas, a cello and a bass, and for the instrumentation of my opera Medea I omit the entire violin section from the orchestra. As I have written a number of works for solo instrument or voice with orchestra I welcomed the opportunity to write a concerto for cello and orchestra and especially one which focuses particularly on the instrument’s lyrical qualities. Although the piece is in one continuous movement, and the soloist is playing almost without a break, it nevertheless falls into distinct sections which are recognisable by a shift of tempo as well as by a change in the music’s character. One of the early ideas Julian Lloyd Webber and I discussed was that it might form a companion piece to one of the Haydn concertos. Given my friendship with some members of the English Chamber Orchestra and my awareness of their repertoire, this suggested a number of particular musical references. The subtitle to the work, for example, combines the subtitles of two idiosyncratic Haydn symphonies and I allude to them in different ways but chiefly through orchestration: for The Philosopher by including a section in the concerto where the orchestration resembles that of the symphony’s first movement (pairs of English and French horns, muted violins and unmuted lower strings); for The Farewell, by the progressive reduction in the orchestration towards the end. Indeed, apart from the orchestral tutti in the last few bars, the last pages of the score are virtually for string quartet. The subtitle also refers to my own background as a philosophy graduate... The piece was commissioned by Philips Classics for Julian Lloyd Webber and is dedicated to him. The first performance was given by Julian Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by James Judd, 21 November 1995, Barbican Hall, London. Gavin Bryars/ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Orchestre

Original Version. Par SCHUMANN ROBERT. Schumann’s Cello Concerto Rediscovered In her first Urtext edition for Edition Peters, internationally renowned cellist Josephine Knight reveals Robert Schumann’s original version of his Cello Concerto in A minor Op. 129 – a piece he actually called a ‘Concertstück’ – removing generations of inauthentic editorial interventions. This is the only available modern scholarly edition of the work as Schumann originally conceived it, and restores the text from October 1850, based on the composer’s manuscript held in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Kraków. This Full Score matches the separately available edition for Cello and Piano (EP 73488). Matching orchestral material is also available from the publisher. Only modern Urtext edition based on Schumann’s original 1850 manuscript Many new corrections and clarifications, especially to the cello part Scholarly preface detailing history of the work and this edition by editor Josephine Knight, Piatti Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music London Cello Part contains Josephine Knight's fingering and bowing suggestions Critical Commentary Cello and piano edition available separately from Edition Peters: orchestral parts available for rental Recording of the Concertstück featuring Josephine Knight available from Dutton Robert Schumann’s tragic last years have mired many of his greatest works in unnecessary doubt. The story of the suppression of his Violin Concerto by well-meaning friends is relatively well-known. Few, however, know that the version of the Cello Concerto that is routinely heard today is so far from Schumann’s original conception of the work – not only in details of phrasing and articulation, but also featuring a different ending with a bold final flourish from the cello. Composed in a burst of inspiration in two weeks in October 1850 shortly after he and Clara had moved to Düsseldorf, Schumann (who in 1850 was still in good health) never heard the piece performed. In an effort to promote a performance of the work, he gave the score to the cellist Robert Emil Bockmühl. Bockmühl made revisions that Schumann resisted, and the hoped-for performance never happened. Schumann’s health failed and he died aged just 46 in 1856. The Concerto, in an already substantially revised form, was premiered in 1860 but it was not given significant recognition until it was championed by Pablo Casals in the 20th century by which time (and since) the text for the work had accreted additions and alterations from generations of soloists. Now Josephine Knight, Piatti Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music, London has returned to the original 1850 manuscript of the work, which is in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Kraków, to reveal Schumann’s original thoughts for the first time in a modern Urtext edition. The edition reflects Schumann’s original conception of the work as a Concertstück and restores Schumann’s musical text, free of posthumous interventions. ‘My ultimate wish,’ says the editor, ‘is to give performers both access to, and confidence that they are playing from, an edition which is a true representation of the piece in its original form, no matter how much more difficult this might be. I found that incorporating the changes enabled the piece to take on a completely different character – one that is lighter and happier, even “cheerful”, as Schumann himself described the work.'/ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Orchestre