Lalo: Cello Concerto (Maréchal)

Edouard Lalo

Like so many other composers, it has been the fate of Edouard Lalo (1823-1892) to be remembered for one work above all others, in his case the Symphonie Espagnole for violin and orchestra, written for Pablo de Sarasate.  Perhaps his best-known work after that is this Cello Concerto of 1876, which also boasts a connection with the great Spanish violinist.  If one of the themes of the last movement sounds oddly familiar (the one first heard in the slow introduction), it's because Sarasate borrowed it for his Habañera, Op. 21, No. 2, published a few years after this concerto was written.  Here is the Lalo concerto's first recording, made by the eminent French cellist, Maurice Maréchal (1892-1964):

Lalo: Concerto in D minor, for cello and orchestra
Maurice Maréchal, with orchestra conducted by Philippe Gaubert
Recorded June 5 and 6, 1932
Columbia Masterworks set MM-185, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 71.32 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 35.17 MB)

Maurice Maréchal

It's worth mentioning which other cello concertos were available on records at the time this Lalo concerto recording was released.  W. H. Squire had recorded the Saint-Saëns A minor and Elgar concertos for Columbia; Beatrice Harrison another version of the Elgar concerto with the composer conducting, for HMV; Feuermann had recorded the Dvořák concerto for Parlophone; and Guilhermina Suggia the Haydn D major for HMV, a recording I have posted here.  Incredibly, neither the Schumann nor the Boccherini-Grützmacher B-Flat were yet available on records.