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 Grażyna Bacewicz’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in G minor was completed in 1963 and premièred at the Warsaw Autumn Festival on 29 September 1963, with Gaspar Cassadó as soloist and the Polish Radio National Orchestra under Stanisław Wisłock. Cast in three movements—the first marked Allegro, a contrasting Adagio, and a virtuosic finale—the concerto unfolds in a continuous arc lasting approximately 21 minutes.

The opening Allegro presents the cello in dialogue with shifting orchestral clusters, while the Adagio offers a lyrical, quasi-atonal cantilena over muted strings and subtle harp interjections. In the finale, Bacewicz exploits the cello’s technical resources—spiccato, glissandi, flageolets, and rapid chordal figuration—to drive toward a dazzling close, all against a backdrop of percussion punctuations and shimmering celesta textures. Throughout, the solo part remains highly demanding, requiring secure intonation in extended tonalities and precise rhythmic coordination with the orchestra’s complex, sonoristic writing.