No. 1 for Violoncello and Orchestra in A minor, op. 33, was composed in 1872 and dedicated to the cellist, conductor and instrument maker Auguste Tolbecque (1830-1919); since then, it has been one of the most popular works of its genre among cellists and the public. It was written at a very difficult time for the author: despite his unstable health, he had served as a soldier in the Prussian-French War, and in January his great-aunt Charlotte Masson, who had been a second mother and his first pi...