The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major, Opus 107, was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1959. He wrote it for Mstislav Rostropovich, who memorized the work in four days and gave the premiere in Leningrad under Yevgeny Mravinsky, on October 4, 1959 in the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory. The first recording was made for the CBS label by Rostropovich accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy in November of the...
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The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major, Opus 107, was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1959. He wrote it for Mstislav Rostropovich, who memorized the work in four days and gave the premiere in Leningrad under Yevgeny Mravinsky, on October 4, 1959 in the Large Hall of the Leningrad Conservatory. The first recording was made for the CBS label by Rostropovich accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy in November of the same year.
The concerto lasts around 25 minutes and has four movements including the cadenza:
The work is scored for two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (each doubling B-flat and A), two bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon), one horn, timpani, celesta, and strings.
There are similarities between the concerto and the Sinfonia Concertante of Sergei Prokofiev, such as the prominent role of isolated timpani strokes. The composer was quoted in Sovetskaya Kultura (June 6, 1959) as saying that 'an impulse' for the work was...
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