Schumann: Cello Concerto | Jean-Guihen Queyras & the Freiburger Barockorchester

Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras plays the solo section in the performance of Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (FBO) conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado. The concert took place in 2014 in the Philharmonie Berlin.

The Concerto for Cello in A minor was the first work that Robert Schumann composed in Düsseldorf. In 1850, Schumann was appointed the city’s Municipal Music Director, and he and his family received an enthusiastic welcome to the city on the Rhine. It was the first time Schumann had written a work for an instrument with which he himself was not familiar. In order to improve the cello passages, he sought advice from Robert Emil Bockmühl, a cello virtuoso who was famous at the time, but did not implement his suggestions into the final composition. The Cello Concerto did not conform to traditional ideas of a solo concerto and as such, no cellist was found to play it during Schumann's lifetime. The piece only premiered four years after Schumann's death in 1860.

The melodious opening theme of the cello concerto fully exhausts the instrument's range and creates a serene mood that becomes decisive for the work. In each of the three movements, the opening theme reappears - in highly varied forms and in different moods. Because of its form, Schumann's Cello Concerto is considered unique within the genre. It places very high demands on the soloist and it is one of the great romantic works for the instrument.

The Freiburger Barockorchester (“Freiburg Baroque orchestra”) began with a spontaneous idea that has developed into a unique musical success story. On a New Year's Eve more than 30 years ago, music students in Freiburg decided to start an orchestra dedicated exclusively to historically informed performance practice, played on period instruments. The FBO first performed concerts in the Freiburg area in 1987. Today, the orchestra is world-famous. In addition to its own concert series in Freiburg, Stuttgart and Berlin, the FBO performs in the most important international concert halls and is considered one of the most distinguished early music ensembles worldwide.

00:00 Allegro
11:05 Adagio
15:15 Finale vivace

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