Marie Jaëll

Concerto pour violoncelle en fa major (1882)

Maria Jaell composed her 20-minute Concerto pour violoncelle (for violoncello and orchestra) in 1882, dedicating it to Jules Delsart, one of the most famous French cellists of her time. In the decade of its composition, the work enjoyed considerable popularity and was also performed by the Belgian cellist Adolphe Fischer at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, it increasingly fell into oblivion and was only recently resurrected from its from its more than 100-year slumber. The manuscript has more than 400 pages, most of which contain contradictory versions of the work in disorganised form. The 2nd movement 'Lento' has only survived in rudimentary form. Julian Riem has now reconstructed and arranged the 'Lento' for orchestra on the basis of the manuscript and this edition extracts the most coherent and stringent version of the concerto possible from the entirety of the sources.