The Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky had long admired Walton's violin and viola concertos, and in 1954 asked his regular pianist Ivor Newton to broach with Walton the possibility of his writing a cello concerto for him. Walton, who was always coolly elegant and at the same time entirely professional and business-like, replied: “I’m a professional composer; I’ll write anything for anybody, if he pays me.” A moment later came one of his typically mischievous afterthoughts: “I write much better if they pay me in dollars.” In 1955 a more pressing commission for an overture intervened, resulting in the Johannesburg Festival Overture, but in 1956 he set to work in earnest, and in April was able to send Piatigorsky the first movement. The great cellist declared himself delighted, but added: “My new Stradivari is of such glorious quality that as a special request for his genius, I would love to have some solo spot for it in your Concerto, unmixed with any other instruments, in whatever form it may be.” This request was of course fulsomely granted with the two big cadenzas in the finale, and Piatigorsky gave the premiere in Boston, USA, under Charles Munch in January 1957. The concerto was acclaimed by press and public alike, and is now a classic in the cello concerto repertoire.

At the last moment, in December 1956, there was some agonising about the soft ending, which (exactly as in the Viola Concerto) possibly suffers from being too similar to the final bars of the first movement. It seems that Walton sent Piatigorsky two further alternative endings, saying he could choose whichever he liked best, but in the end he settled on the original one, and all trace of the others has vanished. However, the niggles never quite ceased: as late as 1974 Piatigorsky took the matter up yet again with Walton, and in February 1975 the composer responded with an alternative ending which, however (in Walton's words), “is to all purposes the same as the original – but he can't say I haven't tried”. Raphael Wallfisch, studying with Piatigorsky in Los Angeles that year, remembers this new ending arriving one day, in which Walton had rewritten the last 23 bars, with a huge crescendo – but the last seven bars were still soft. It was never played at the time, but is published in David Lloyd-Jones's new edition (Ur below).

sources

A  Autograph full score, private collection, Baltimore, USA, but microfilms are at the William Walton Museum, Ischia and at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

E  First edition of score, published by Oxford University Press in 1957

V,S  Piano score and Solo Vc part, published by OUP at the same time as E

Ur  Urtext edition, edited by David Lloyd-Jones and published by OUP in 2011