The arpeggione was invented by two Viennese luthiers around 1823, and had a short period of popularity right after. This is kind of a guitar, except it can be bowed. To accommodate, the strings are positioned along a more rounded fingerboard, so that the bow can move around it, and touch each string separately. The fingerboard has frets, just like a guitar, and the instrument is tuned the same: EADGBE.
Schubert wrote the short piece on commission from his friend Vincenz Schuster in 1824. It was not published until after Schubert’s death in 1871, when both the instrument and the popularity of it were a thing of the past. It is usually transcribed for different instruments, like the cello, on record here.
Maurice Gendron was a French cellist, and considered among the greatest of the 20th century. He was a teacher of Colin Carr and Jacqueline du Pré and made numerous recordings, like an award winning one of Bach’s cello suites.