Elégie for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 24
Gabriel Fauré
Born: May 12, 1845, Pamiers, France
Died: November 4, 1924, Paris, France
Year Composed: 1883
Length: c. 7 minutes
World Premiere: April 1901, Paris
Last ISO Performance: June 1984 with conductor Stephen Stein and soloist Stanislav Orlovsky
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and strings

Gabriel Fauré is first and foremost a composer of melody; he is not terribly concerned with rigorous tempo nor technical demands of the performer. He is not even particularly concerned with the massive orchestral precedents left by Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner. Elégie is scored for modest orchestral forces—Fauré omits low brass and percussion—creating an atmosphere of intimacy between solo cello and ensemble.

Elégie began as a second movement to a larger work for cello and piano. The intended sonata was never completed, and Fauré decided to publish the single movement as its own work in 1883. Pablo Casals premiered the symphonic version in 1901 after conductor Édouard Colonne requested Fauré arrange the piano accompaniment for orchestra. 

The opening section is primarily introspective and nostalgic, though each statement of the theme manages to express a different emotion. The plaintive B section utilizes graceful and transparent scoring to transform melodic material into a new, hopeful atmosphere. The solo cello outlines harmonies while woodwinds present the optimistic second theme. The cello’s presentation of the woodwind theme bursts into a virtuosic triplet section and leaves us with a cadenza that transforms  into the work’s most intense statement of the opening theme.  A minor variant of the second theme dwindles to silence, as if to say goodbye.