Concert Polonaise for cello and orchestra in D minor, op. 14

David Popper wrote the Concert Polonaise, op. 14, during his years as principal cellist of the Vienna Court Opera orchestra, a post he held from 1868 to 1873 before leaving to tour as a soloist. The piece follows the pattern of the nineteenth-century virtuoso showpiece: a slow declamatory opening, then a polonaise that puts the cello in its upper register and keeps it there. Popper later taught in Budapest, where his Hohe Schule des Violoncellspiels became the standard advanced study collection, and most of his output was written for his own instrument.