Availability

Score on special sale from the Hire Library

Programme Notes

I wrote this short solo piece for Guy Johnston to celebrate the 300th anniversary of his cello, which was made in 1714 by the Austrian luthier David Tecchler. I chose the title 'Ein Celloleben' by analogy with Strauss’s 'Ein Heldenleben'. Within its four-minute duration the music encompasses the whole range of the cello from bottom C to a top high G, and passes through moods of contemplation, intense animation and light-hearted scherzando. Towards the end there are three quotations, played very quietly on harmonics: from Corelli’s 'Christmas Concerto', composed in 1714; Beethoven’s E minor Piano Sonata Op.90, composed in 1814; and Ravel’s Piano Trio, composed in 1914. There is also a ghostly quotation of the opening of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata, Op.102 No.1, composed in 1815.

© David Matthews

Ein Celloleben

Holywell Music Room (Oxford, United Kingdom)

Joanna Gutowska

Ein Celloleben

Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham (Birmingham, United Kingdom)

Joanna Gutowska

Ein Celloleben

St Mary's Church (Kinnerton, Wales, United Kingdom)

Joanna Gutowska

Ein Celloleben

Theatr Clwyd (Mold, Wales, United Kingdom)

Guy Johnston