Taught by renowned cellist
Julian Schwarz
Join esteemed American cellist Julian Schwarz for an in-depth look at one of the most autumnal works in the repertoire: the Elgar Concerto. From the iconic opening chords to the haunting coda and everything in between, this concerto challenges you to flex your interpretive muscle as much as it does your technical facility. Schwarz shares a panoramic view of this essential work, projecting every nuance using a highly creative approach to bowing, slides, left-hand technique, and overall relationship with the instrument.
I. Adagio – Moderato
In this lesson, Schwarz demystifies this famous opening movement by sharing insights into bowing, intonation, and how to break chords for maximum expressivity. To address these and the other challenges of this movement, Schwarz offers exercises in bow speed and independence of the left and right hand, corrects misconceptions about bowing with flat hair, and presents the “Resonance Principle” of longer versus shorter strings.
He presents outside-the-box thinking on key topics like slides (the principle of fewer slides for fast music, and maximum slides for slow music), projection (how to project — and when not to), always keeping in mind Elgar’s many expressive markings.
II. Lento – Allegro molto
In the second movement, Schwarz brings careful attention to the tempo between Lento and the first movement’s Adagio, making your articulation match the expressive goals of each passage, and how to physically achieve it (even when your endurance is running low). He offers key tips for how to hide bow changes, when to switch between sautillé and spiccato stroke to make the Allegro molto feel grounded and rhythmic, and how your thinking affects how fast you perceive a passage to be (the left hand doesn’t have shift as much as you think).
III. Adagio
In this short but heartfelt movement, Schwarz shares how to bring a vocal quality to your playing using highly varied slides, vibrato, articulation, choice of string, and creative bowings. You’ll learn how to make your left hand supple and controlled.
IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non-troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio
In this substantial finale, Schwarz offers you pathways to inhabit the varied characters of this movement and bring expressive nuance to every gesture. Remarks on interpreting the “nobilmente” share space with detailed technical insights: how to save energy through more “slapping” in the left hand; using modified ricochet stroke (and practice tips for applying it to Duport No. 7); how to adjust your left-hand technique to suit the character of each passage.
The emotional center of the entire concerto is the slow coda: Schwarz recommends studying this complex coda to map out the tempo changes like a conductor to best prepare the “glorious and devastating” return of the opening chords, organ-like and magisterial, and rewriting the ending for maximum projection.
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Unlock Course →Julian Schwarz is a prize winning cellist and serves as professor and soloist around the world.
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