Camille Saint-Saëns:Cello Concerto No. 2. in d-minor

Camille SaintSaëns

 

Cello Concerto No. 2. in D-minor

 

Christine Walevska, cello
Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Eliahu Inbal, conductor
(rec: Monte-Carlo, Alcazar, November 1973)
LP: Philips 6500 459 - ℗1974
vinyl transfer: Emilio Pessina, 1999

 

Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 119, is written in two movements, like his Fourth Piano Concerto. It was composed for a Dutch cellist, Joseph Hollmann, in 1902. The Second Concerto is much more virtuosic than the First, but does not possess the thematic inventiveness and harmonic intricacy of the First.

"In many respects, it's a finer creation than its famous predecessor in A minor Op. 33; larger in overall concept (it comprises two main sections, each subdivided into two movements) and arguably of greater thematic nobility, the concerto remains largely unknown."

 

Fanny Nemeth-Weiss, Cello
David Searle, Conductor
CUA Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC

 

 

Music

1. Allegro moderato e maestoso
2. Andante sostenuto

The first movement is in sonata form. The second part is a prayer, in E-flat major in simple ternary form. The first movement ends with a scale in artificial harmonics, like the scale in the First Cello Concerto. The second movement is a moto perpetuo in G minor. It ends abruptly in a cadenza, followed by a major-key recapitulation of the first movement, and a coda.

 

Deborah Pae, cello
Christian Arming, conductor
Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège