Cello Concerto in C major

It has been claimed by Lebermann that the violoncello version of Benton 106 is the original although Benton's research has shown that Falter's edition for clarinet solo (1797) appeared two years before any other. However, she makes the point that as most of the early publishers, including Pleyel himself, issued the three versions (clarinet, flute and violoncello) simultaneously they must be considered equally authentic. The present work probably dates from around 1797 and thus is one of the last if not the last original concertos Pleyel is known to have composed. This edition is based on a copy of Artaria's print of 1799 preserved in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien under the shelfmark IX.177/a. The title page reads: CONCERTO / per / Violoncello principale / del Sigr / IGN: PLEYEL / N.3 / in Vienna presso Artaria Comp. 252.319.816. fl.2.50xr

Some parts carry the plate numbers 814.815.816 thus linking the print with the arrangements for flute and clarinet published by Artaria the same year.

The Artaria print is for the most part accurately engraved although there are inevitably a number of errors and inconsistencies. The notation of articulation and dynamic markings has been standardised throughout, and, where missing, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets where appropriate. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the print is inconsistent at times in its notation of appoggiature ; these have also been standardised to minimise confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been silently corrected; otherwise, any editorial emendation with no authority from the source is placed within brackets.

Allan Badley