Joseph Haydn:
Cello Concerto C Major Hob. VII b:1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gaspar Cassado:
Cello Concerto D Major
Horn concerto E flat Major K 447

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach:
Cello Concerto B flat Major Wq 171

It is not unusual to hear cellists complain that, compared to violinists, they have been rather neglected by the great composers. Where are the cello concertos by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Ravel, or Bartok? Hence it is not surprising that some of the great cellists were very active as arrangers, and here the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassado (1897–1966) can be said to have set the standard. Himself a prolific composer, and other works for his instrument, Cassado not only freely transposed Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s well-known cello concerto from A Major to F Major, but also conjured up cello concertos from such varied works as Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, Weber’s Second Clarinet Concerto, or an E Minor sonata by Vivaldi. He took nine pieces from the piano compositions in Tchaikovsky’s Op.72 and created a cello concerto from them, and even arranged Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto in E flat Major K. 447, transposed to D Major and adapted to the broader capabilities of the cello.