Cello Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)
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."[1]
Music
- Allegro moderato e maestoso
- 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.
Recordings
- Zuill Bailey (Cello) and David Wiley (Roanoke Symphony Orchestra)
- Lynn Harrell (Cello) and Riccardo Chailly (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra)
- Steven Isserlis (Cello) and Christoph Eschenbach (North German Radio Symphony Orchestra)
- Maria Kliegel (Cello) and Jean-François Monnard (Bournemouth Sinfonietta)
- Torleif Thedéen (Cello) and Jean-Jacques Kantorow (Tapiola Sinfonietta)
- Laszlo Varga (Cello) and Siegfried Landau (Westphalian Symphony Orchestra)
- Christine Walevska (Cello) and Eliahu Inbal (Orchestra National de Monte-Carlo)
- Jamie Walton (Cello) and Alex Briger (Philharmonia Orchestra)