Bliss's four concertos (the first of them is lost) were written over a span of fifty years. This cello concerto is the last of them and was the result of a commission by the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. At least one commentator on the work speculates that some of the work's emotional content might be the fact that the composer's long-deceased brother Howard Bliss was also a cellist.

The concerto is a half-hour long and makes great technical demands on the soloist, although not for purposes of mere display. The orchestration is light, using a reduced orchestra. The first movement is thirteen minutes long and the rest of the time is divided about evenly between the other two. The opening movement has Bliss's characteristic strongly dotted rhythms, which dominate the development. The two main themes are by turns robust and decisive on the one hand and lyrical on the other. The second movement is tender, featuring extended chamber-music-like dialogues between the soloists and various winds including the horns. The finale is lively and athletic: A fast section featuring frequent changes of meter contrasts with a sostenuto section.

The overall mood of the piece is light, and Bliss avoids the sense that the solo cello confronts the orchestra. Perhaps because of the small-scale orchestration, this light mood (which rarely raises its voice to make loud passages), and the chamber-like relationship between soloist and orchestra, Bliss originally named it "Concertino for cello & orchestra." It was so billed at its premiere, in Aldeburgh, England, with Rostropovich as soloist and Benjamin Britten conducting the English Chamber Orchestra. After the concert both Britten and Rostropovich insisted to the composer that the work was really a full-fledged concerto and ought to be so named, a view the composer ultimately accepted.

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