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Heitor Villa-Lobos

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Villa-Lobos)

The Cello Concerto No. 1 (), Op. 50, was composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos in 1913 as his first large-scale work, showing the influence of Tchaikovsky. Villa-Lobos was trained as a cellist, beginning at

Structure and scoring#

The concerto is in three movements: It is scored for an orchestra consisting of piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings. The music has been described as “full of youthful energy”. The music shows the influence of Tchaikovsky. A performance lasts about twenty minutes.

Recordings#

The cello concerto was recorded, together with the composer’s second cello concerto, in 1989 by soloist Ulrich Schmid with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie conducted by Dominique Roggen. A CD of both cello concertos combined with the composer’s Fantasia for cello and orchestra was released in 2023, with soloist Antonio Meneses and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Isaac Karabtchevsky.

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Composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos