Cello Concerto for cello and piano by William Walton
Published by Oxford University Press
William Walton (1902-83) was an English composer known for his orchestral and theater music. He was a meticulous perfectionist, resulting in a small, yet polished oeuvre. His music is often regarded as continuing the idiom of Elgar, though he sometimes incorporated into his romantic and rhythmically vital style influences of jazz and modernism.
Walton’s richly melodic Cello Concerto (1957) is the third and latest of his string concertos, written for legendary cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Compared to the earlier, better-known, and extroverted Viola Concerto (1929), Walton’s rhapsodic Cello Concerto is expansive and introspective. He considered it his favorite of his three string concertos. Master level, Grade 6.
