Cello Concerto in D Minor

With a portentously melodramatic opening Prelude that develops into almost operatic exchanges between soloist and orchestra, Lalo’s Cello Concerto tells you from the start that it means business. And that kind of message was needed when the piece appeared in 1877 in Paris: a time when the cello wasn’t generally regarded as a suitable concerto instrument, able to hold its own against orchestral forces, and when not many composers were prepared to risk failure in challenging the received wisdom. A practicing chamber musician with hands-on experience as both a cellist and violinist, Lalo understood the problems and how to handle them, taking pains to keep his soloist in the foreground, with plenty of sonic space around the cello writing—which is designed for maximum resonance and clarity, without double-stopping techniques that can cloud the sound. There are three movements, the second described as an "Intermezzo" and predominantly slow-moving (though with faster scherzo sections intervening), and the third beginning with a ruminative cello solo that prefaces a lively rondo—written (much like Lalo’s better-known Symphonie espagnole ) on terms that sound like a love letter to Spain.