Concerto No. 1 in A Minor for Cello and Orchesta, Op. 33
Camille Saint-Saëns
Born: October 9, 1835, Paris, France
Died: December 16, 1921, Algiers, Algeria
Year Composed: 1872
Length: c. 19 minutes
World Premiere: 1873, Paris
Last ISO Performance: March 2012 with conductor David Glover
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings 

Camille Saint-Saëns’ first Cello Concerto opens flamboyantly with little orchestral support and absolutely no introduction. There is just one beat, a single booming orchestral chord, before the cello states the main theme and rips through passionate triplets in the tenor register, then drops dramatically down the octave. 

Breaking convention with the standard three-movement solo form, this is a one-movement work. There are three distinct sections which are to be played attacca, transitioning seamlessly. Each of the three sections has multiple themes which Saint-Saëns evolves from the opening triplets. The first section employs typical call-and-response sections between the soloist and orchestra while the second section is a delightfully composed minuet with staccato, muted strings accompanying the soloist throughout. Only in this second section are we graced with a cadenza. Conventionally, Saint-Saëns’ third section is a recapitulation of the first, with all opening thematic material again present. Less conventionally, the work closes with an entirely new theme: Saint-Saëns’ atypical version of a coda. 

Saint-Saëns had a difficult time getting this concerto premiered. Thankfully, the premiere successfully took place, and the work was met with resounding acceptance. A music critic went so far as to say the Cello Concerto would finally cement Saint-Saëns’ reputation as a serious composer, ostensibly rectifying his “divergence from classicism” prior to 1872. Today, the Cello Concerto is considered one of the finest solo works for cello in the repertory. 

Saint-Saëns was admonished early in his career for being rebellious and naïve, but at the end of his career, he would be chastised for remaining stubbornly conventional, never joining the musical experimentation seen in Paris at the turn of the century. Saint-Saëns was an enormous proponent of creating and adhering to the “French Sound” and was founder-turned-Vice President of the Société Nationale de Musique. The SNM aimed to premiere new works by French composers, thus determining artistic standards for a French musical language. After establishing his (conservative) musical language, the obstinate composer would never veer from what he established as the “French Way.” This pushed him out of fashion in a Parisian society obsessed with innovation and novelty. Saint-Saëns remained chained to his dated Romantic tropes and left experimentation to modernist composers, most notably Debussy and Ravel, who rose to musical fame with their colorful harmonic landscapes and cutting-edge orchestrations.