CELLO CONCERTO
( March 13 2015 Dublin Premiere . National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, dir. Kenneth Montgomery. Soloist: Martin Johnson )
As long as I can remember, I always wanted to compose a concerto for cello and orchestra, but I lacked the courage and the means till I had written my violin concerto ( premiered by Alan Smale with the N.S.O. under Christopher Warren-Green in 2012 ). As soon as that work was born , I felt I was free . And my soloist, Martin Johnson, then said a mighty thing to me: ” Frank, the cello must soar. Let it soar. Let it sing. ”
So I did. With its four movements and over half an hour duration the cello concerto is longer, bigger . It hovers between Dvorak and Lutoslawsky – of course. It has to . As in both its mighty predecessors, the solo instrument here must sing in its bass and chalumeau and tenor and contralto and dizzyingly high soprano register, right through the introductory first movement, the cantabilISSIMO slow movement, a wild screaming scherzo and a “we calm the mighty forces, we , wrap up all ” last movement.
In this work ( as in several other recent works, including the violin concerto ) I use only my Frank Corcoran’s Magical Scale ( these seven notes: G, A flat, C sharp, D, E flat, F sharp and A ). Only these seven give me the complete linear and harmonic material of all my movements, their building-blocks and my cement. ) .
Three trumpets with lower brass bray a “motto theme ” at the beginning of the first movement. It comes again several times in the course of this movement – and indeed in later movements. The cello enters immediately as a contending answer in this proud agony of ” Me Solo against Them All ; the shadow of Bach’s great Sarabande from the C Major Solo Cello Suite is seldom absent. Here is epic struggle against a vast array of percussion ..
My Slow Movement is A Great Song, – An t- Amhran Mor . Its quasi – quote of Dvorak’s hymn in his slow movement of his cello concerto runs right through this movement . Oboe and woodwind sing it in the opening bars, whereas four horns have the last word ( – and watch for my beautiful version for 4 divided celli just before this lyrical music comes to an end ).
My third movement is a “quasi un scherzo”. It must be certainly the most violent music I’ve ever written, or indeed imagined. Running through is a rhythmic corset of 5,4,3 and 3 beats in the bar at a cracking gallop of crotchet = 132. No strings but belting , shouting, shrieking brass , often only one- or two voices with the crushing weight of so many drums and brake-drums and tom-toms and more – all try to crush the solo cello’s human scream in its highest register. In vain they try .
My last movement’s function then is to reconcile bits and smithereens from the previous three , find closure , yet without any cheap solution, to seek a triumphant finish after the all cello’s last scurryings. “In my end is my beginning “.
Each of the four movements has elements of a solo cadenza without ever actually furnishing us with any extended 19th. c. solo Paganinian cadenza as such . The cello has to rule its vast orchstra AND to fly free as it ” extend the bounds of the musically possible ” ( Debussy ) .
FRANK CORCORAN