Robert Schumann maintained a very special relationship with the cello throughout his life, particularly after he was forced to interrupt his career as a pianist in 1832 due to an injury to his right hand. In a personal letter, he wrote: “I intend to return to playing the cello (it only requires the left hand) and it will be very useful to me in composing symphonies.” Although he never became a cellist, he had a profound understanding of the instrument. It is surprising, then, that he dedicated only one concerto to it — the very concerto that all cellists today aspire to play… and that we love to hear.
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Originally from Dresden, the Schumann family settled in Düsseldorf in September 1850. Clara continued her career as a pianist, while Robert took up the position of Music Director of the city, following the great reputation he had earned as a composer. The difficulties he soon faced stemmed from his role as conductor. He had little experience in leadership and an imprecise conducting technique. Yet the first months were inspiring. He composed the Cello Concerto in just two weeks, in October, followed immediately by the Rhenish Symphony. Only later did the psychological and nervous disorders that had long troubled him worsen. Notably, the concerto’s score was revised shortly before the most tragic episode of his life. He sent the final version to the publisher on February 21, 1854, and attempted suicide six days later.
The work was complete. It is founded on the quality of its musical discourse rather than virtuosity. Schumann seemed to deliberately avoid any kind of showmanship, focusing instead on a substantive writing style. This does not mean the concerto lacks passages of great difficulty. Many cellists will agree that it is an extremely demanding work, but all the performer’s effort is applied to the “rhetoric” of the discourse — the care taken to convey the expressive nuances of the composition, the abrupt mood changes so characteristic of the composer’s personality, the intense and passionate register of the first movement, the calmness of the second, and the expressive exaltation of the third…
Rui Campos Leitão
Image: Detail from the last page of the autograph manuscript | Source: IMSLP