Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

THE STORY

Beginning his musical career at the age of 10 with a public performance (from memory) of Beethoven and Mozart piano concertos, Camille Saint-Saëns was quickly hailed as the “French Mozart.” After his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, he took a position as a music professor and, soon after, as a church organist; however, he was fortunate enough to be able to devote the entire last half of his life solely to composition and performance.

Composed in 1872, the Cello Concerto No. 1 is a cosmopolitan work of quintessential Saint-Saëns charm. He links all three traditional movements of a concerto into a continuous single movement—a technique familiar from the music of Robert Schumann, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. Yet Saint-Saëns enlivens the form with hallmarks of the French style, including precise musical phrases, colorful orchestration, and a lightness that informs the entire work. At its premiere, the concerto was warmly received by critics and audience alike and continues to be a cornerstone of the cello repertoire.

LISTEN FOR

• The frantic main theme, which the solo cello uncharacteristically introduces from the very outset—this theme returns at the beginning of the last movement, bringing a cyclic unity to the piece
• The middle section’s delicate minuet—a respite from the tumult of the first section
• The immense range in the cello part, reaching from the lowest notes possible on the instrument to the upper reaches of the harmonic spectrum 

INSTRUMENTATION

Solo cello; two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings