The Cello Concerto: An Overview and Timeline
by Patrick Waller and Renate Dehmer
These pages currently include a total of 2311 composers of around 3150 cello concertos, 933 (c.30%) of which have been commercially recorded.
Aims
The aims of the project, which was originally undertaken in the second half of 2020, are as follows:
1. To assist readers interested in the genre of the cello concerto in exploring the recorded repertoire and, for unrecorded works, in hearing those works for which non-commercial recordings exist on the internet.
2. Using information freely available on the internet, to identify as many cello concertos as possible and to establish whether or not each concerto has, to date, been commercially recorded.
3. To provide basic information about all the composers and the concertos identified in the form of a brief single entry for each composer with hyperlinks to sources of further information, giving preference to reviews of recordings on MusicWeb International.
4. To create timelines of all identified cello concertos, dividing them into those that have been recorded and those that are unrecorded to date.
Links to other pages in the project:
Introduction
Alphabetical entries for composers of cello concertos
Composers A-B
Composers C-F
Composers G-I
Composers J-K
Composers L-M
Composers N-R
Composers S
Composers T-Z
Timelines
Composers of cello concertos who were born before 1780
Cello concertos written in the 19th Century
Cello concertos written between 1901-1940
Cello concertos written between 1941-1960
Cello concertos written between 1961-1970
Cello concertos written between 1971-1980
Cello concertos written between 1981-1990
Cello concertos written between 1991-2000
Cello concertos written in the 21st Century
Appendix to the timelines: Composers of undated concertos written after c.1850
Appendix 1: Works for multiple solo cellos and orchestra/ensemble
One hundred and forty-nine composers of works for multiple solo cellos and orchestra/ensemble (most of which are concertos) are listed here.
Appendix 2: Other works for cello and orchestra
A further 877 composers who did not write a cello concerto (and are not included in Appendix 1) but wrote works for solo cello and orchestra/ensemble are included here.
Composers A-F
Composers G-K
Composers L-R
Composers S-Z
Can you help?
Latest Update (March 2023):
A further 113 composers of cello concertos and 8 works for multiple cellos and orchestra have been added. Appendix 2 (Other works for cello and orchestra) has also been updated with 166 composers added. We are continuing to identify further works, some of which have been written very recently. Another update is planned later in the year.
Authorship: The project was originally conceived and published by Patrick Waller in December 2020, at which point it contained 768 composers of cello concertos. He retains overall responsibility for editing the files and made the recommendations included in the timelines.
Renate Dehmer from Germany agreed to join the project as a co-author in 2022. She has undertaken most of the searching that has roughly tripled the number of composers included and she also compiled Appendix 1 (Works for multiple solo cellos and orchestra/ensemble), and sub-edited all the entries.
