Cello Concerto in A Major

Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s Cello Concerto in A Major was composed in 1753 in Berlin, where he was employed as a harpsichordist and clavichord player at the court of Frederick the Great. As was common practice at the time, the composer created highly effective alternative transcriptions of the solo part for either harpsichord or flute. But given the extremely idiomatic writing, which leaps nimbly from the instrument’s lowest notes to its expressive high register, it seems entirely plausible that the music was conceived very much with the cello in mind. The Concerto’s outer movements, a dynamically exciting “Allegro” and a rumbustious finale “Allegro assai,” are characterized by unpredictable and volatile changes of mood, the cello’s attempts to sustain a lyrical line invariably thwarted by nervy interjections from the orchestra. In stark contrast, the central “Largo con sordini,” in which the strings are muted, is dark and gloomy, projecting an introverted melancholy that is deeply affecting.