Cello Concerto No. 9 (Boccherini)

Luigi Boccherini's Cello Concerto No. 9 in B♭ Major, G. 482, was written in either the late 1760s or early 1770s. Boccherini, a talented cellist, composed 12 cello concertos. In 1895, German cellist Friedrich Grützmacher chose this concerto to be arranged to fit the style of a Romantic virtuoso concerto, and in this form, widely heard, it bears only a tenuous resemblance to the original manuscript.^[1]

The Boccherini Ninth Cello Concerto has long been an integral part of standard cello instruction, because of creeping use of the full 4+ octave range of the cello, rather than large jumps between different finger positions.

Grützmacher merged Boccherini's Ninth Cello Concerto with other Boccherini Cello Concertos.^[1][2] Besides the extensive cuts in the outer movements, Grützmacher decided to rid the Concerto of its original second movement, replacing it with that of the Seventh Cello Concerto (in G Major, G.480). The Fourth Cello Concerto (In C Major, G.477) makes an appearance in bars 40-46 of the first movement, and in bars 85-96 and 151-163 of the Rondo, borrowing from the respective movements. The arpeggios of the Fifth Cello Concerto's (in D Major, G478) first movement are featured in their minor form in bars 47-53 of the first movement. Grützmacher also took the liberty of writing his own cadenzas. Despite all the changes, this Concerto holds up as one of Boccherini's best-known works.

Pablo Casals, Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, and Jacqueline du Pré all made recordings of the Grützmacher version of the Concerto.^{[3][better source needed]} Maurice Gendron^[4] and Yo-Yo Ma^{[5][better source needed]} have made recordings of the original work. The two works are distinguished by their origin: Original vs. arr. Grützmacher.