Work Information
John Joubert : Concerto in Two Movements for Cello and Chamber Orchestra Op171
| John Joubert’s Concerto in Two Movements for Cello and Chamber Orchestra was first performed on Sunday 4th March 2012 in St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury, by the Northern Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Berman, with cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
The Concerto was commissioned by Raphael Wallfisch. |
| Publisher |
Novello & Co Ltd |
Category |
Soloist(s) and Orchestra |
| Year Composed |
2011 |
Duration |
24 Minutes |
| Solo Instrument(s) |
cello |
Orchestration |
2(2pic)222/0+2hn000/str |
| Availability |
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| Reduced Score(s): |
NOV162382 |
Reduced Score(s): |
Not available |
Programme Note
In planning my new concerto I decided to depart from the more traditional three-movement convention and cast it instead into two interrelated movements – a slow and a fast – in which the second is based on essentially the same material as its predecessor. The four main themes of the first movement unfold in a succession of basically melodic but contrasted ideas, the last of which expands into the central climax of the movement. After this the three first themes recur in the same order as before, bringing the movement to a quiet conclusion. The second movement begins with a slow soliloquy for cello alone. This leads into the main body of the movement which, now in a lively allegro tempo, revisits in varied form the four main themes of the first. The last of these reappears as a fugue for string quartet for which the cello provides the first entry of the subject. This is interrupted by another reflective monologue for solo cello introducing the second half of the movement, with the basic themes repeated in various ways leading to an energetic dialogue between solo and orchestra. Eventually they coincide in an emphatic final cadence in the main key of the work – Ab major. The concerto was commissioned by Raphael Wallfisch and is dedicated to my cellist daughter, Anna. J.J.
Reviews
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Elegiac in tone and tuneful in idiom, Joubert's Cello Concerto is the spiritual heir to such lyrical, deeply-felt examples in the genre such as those by Elgar and Finzi, both staples of soloist Raphael Wallfisch's repertoire, and this intimate, nostalgic and finely-wrought new work deserves a place alongside them. Joubert's score is lit with an autumnal glow and its prudent and enterprising constant renewal of a handful of motifs sounds like a distillation of the composer's accumulated creative wisdom...Joubert has always been industrious and prolific - the cello concerto is his opus 171 - and this new work, together with his recent piece for chorus and orchestra, An English Requiem, suggests that the octogenarian composer is going through something of a golden period. His gifts in instrumental writing are conspicuous throughout every bar of his concerto...
, Tempo, 01/07/2012
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John Joubert’s new cello concerto, with the orchestra’s president, Raphael Wallfisch, playing the solo role... was commissioned by Wallfisch and forms part of the Cultural Olympiad... It’s the kind of writing you long to hear again, to appreciate the subtleties and ingenuity in it. Its structure and sound colours, while in a tradition we know and follow easily, are original and stimulating. And it has melody and feeling – something any cello work surely needs.
Robert Beale, Manchester Evening News, 21/05/2012
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At the best part of half an hour the concerto is a major addition to a somewhat restricted repertoire of masterpieces for the instrument, and there are some touching subconscious outreachings to some of them. But the strength of personality of the work is present in every bar of these two movements, each beginning with a searching cello solo, the second a cadenza reflecting on past material and paving the way for a frequently waltz-like reworking of what we have already heard.
The tone of the work is mellow, the cello outpourings evoking a kind of visionary wisdom as the structures continue to aspire ever upwards both in tessitura and in dynamic levels. Melodies unfold with inevitability, textures are clearly layered (towards the end there is a marvellous moment where the soloist’s busy activity almost disguises the fact that a solo string fugue is developing behind him, a mutiny quelled only by a return to the opening material).
Wallfisch delivered the idiomatic solo writing with magisterial commitment and a great deal of emotional involvement, communicating so persuasively to a rapt audience.
Despite scoring for the most compact chamber orchestra, Joubert draws a whole range of colours from the players, not least a resourceful deployment of the horn duo. And the NCO, tiny but so powerful in this splendid acoustic, responded to his demands gratefully under the enthusiastic, expert and reliable young conductor Jonathan Berman.
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, 09/03/2012
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