Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Cello Concerto No. 1 in
A minor,
Op. 33, in 1872, when he was 37 years old. He wrote this work for the French
cellist,
viola da gamba player and instrument maker
Auguste Tolbecque. Tolbecque was part of a distinguished family of musicians closely associated with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, France's leading concert society. The concerto was first performed on January 19, 1873, at the Paris Conservatoire concert with Tolbecque as soloist. This was considered a mark of Saint-Saëns' growing acceptance by the French musical establishment.
Sir
Donald Francis Tovey later wrote "Here, for once, is a violoncello concerto in which the solo instrument displays every register without the slightest difficulty in penetrating the orchestra."[1][2] Many composers, including
Shostakovich and
Rachmaninoff, considered this concerto to be the greatest of all cello concertos.[3]Yo-Yo Ma's recording of five "Great Cello Concertos" includes
Dvořák's,
Elgar's,
Haydn's 2nd, Saint-Saëns' first, and
Schumann's.[4]
Structure and overview
Saint-Saëns broke with convention in writing the concerto. Instead of using the normal three-movement
concerto form, he structured the piece in one continuous
movement. This single movement contains three distinct sections. Those sections, tightly structured, share interrelated ideas. Saint-Saëns' contact with
Franz Liszt while serving as
organist at the
Église de la Madeleine may have led him to use
cyclic form in his orchestral works.[citation needed]
The concerto begins unusually. Instead of the traditional orchestral introduction, the piece begins with one short chord from the orchestra. The cello follows, stating the main motif. Soon,
countermelodies flow from both the
orchestra and
soloist, at times the two playfully "calling and answering" each other.
A restatement of the opening material from the first movement opens the finale. Saint-Saëns introduces two new themes but also includes the
recapitulation of the fourth theme from the first movement, tying the whole design together.[2] After a final restatement of the opening theme, he concludes by introducing an entirely new idea for the cello.
Saint-Saëns very often uses the solo cello here as a declamatory instrument. This keeps the soloist in the dramatic and musical foreground, the orchestra offering a shimmering backdrop. The music is tremendously demanding for soloists, especially in the fast third section. This difficulty has not stopped the concerto from becoming a favourite of the great
virtuoso cellists.
1st movement, 1st theme (A minor)
1st movement, 2nd theme
1st movement, 3rd theme
1st movement, 4th theme (piano reduction, F major)