Eric Schissel writes in response to Tim Mahon:

>I believe the Volkmann is a one-movement work (although it's been awhile
>since I've heard it, and since like the Schumann which Martin Anderson
>compares it to, it may well be more of a three-movements-in-one, this
>may be a distinction without a difference).

Volkmann himself had this to say (in a letter to Brahms, Dec.  1874):
"If my one-movement concerto was the first movement of a three-movement
work, I would understand if its length was deemed impractical; but my
piece, in a manner of speaking, encompasses the conventional three
movements, and for this reason, and also because its structure is a
well-reasoned one, its duration should not appear too long to intelligent
listeners."

It is indeed a one-movement work (Allegro moderato) in one closed sonata
form, but Volkmann seamlessly inserts a brief and thematically unrelated
interlude between the development and the recapitulation that could be
said to assume a similar role as the slow movement in a three-movement
concerto - provide a release of the tensions built up at the end of the
development and prepare the ground for the entry of the finale, or, in
this case, the recapitulation.  I think it is quite an interesting model:
the classical three-movement structure is projected onto the different
sections of an organic, one-movement work.  Although the interlude is
not marked in a slower tempo, it has a rather slow "feeling" to it.  The
placing of the two Cadenzas also reflects this structure: there's one
in the usual position, after the recapitulation, but another one (even
marked as such in Volkmann's arrangement of the work for cello and piano)
prior to that at the end of the development (mirroring the cadenza that
you would usually find at the end of the first movement in a conventional
concerto).

Unfortunately, the editions by Becker and Mainardi pretty much butchered
the work (I've seen the Becker, and been warned of the Mainardi by
Johannes Wohlmacher) - if you want to get a good idea of Volkmann's
original intentions, avoid them!  The Wohlmacher/Albert recording seems
fine in that regard, but I've heard that the Karni/Pommer recording is
based on the Mainardi edition.  I don't know which edition the recording
that Tim mentioned is based on.

If anyone is interested in reading my analysis of the work, feel free to
e-mail me.

Daniel Christlein