For almost 30 years Joseph Haydn served at the court of Esterházy, Austria’s richest nobleman. Here he was given the ideal conditions to create and develop. Haydn also led a troupe of dedicated musicians of a high artistic standard. The orchestra’s talented soloists enabled the composer to compose not only symphonies but also solo concertos. One of these is the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 in C major, dedicated to Joseph Franz Weigl, Haydn’s friend and the cellist of the Esterházy Orchestra. Although written around 1761–65, the work subsequently gathered dust in Prague’s National Museum for almost 200 years before it became a treasured jewel of the cello repertoire. It was only in 1961 that the musicologist Oldřich Pulkert, the museum’s archivist, discovered a copy of the score. Now, more than half a century after this discovery, Haydn’s First Cello Concerto has been performed and recorded by some of the greatest cellists of the 20th and 21st century.

In the performance of this opus the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra is joined by French cellist Aurélien Pascal and conductor Andreas Spering (Germany).