Servais - Fantaisie et Variations brillantes sur l’Hymne national hollandais (Urtext Edition)

Schott published four of Servais’s fantasias posthumously in 1876, a decade after the composer’s death. Three were written for cello and orchestra, or cello and piano, and one for two cellos and piano. Among them, the Fantaisie et Variations brillantes sur l’Hymne national hollandais appeared as Œuvre posthume No. 4. The work is also known by the alternate title Souvenir de la Hollande.

The first known performance of the fantasia took place in Amsterdam on 10 December 1858. At under ten minutes, it is one of Servais’s shortest works in the genre. The piece is based on the former Dutch national anthem “Wien Neêrlandsch bloed in de aders vloeit,” composed by Johann Wilhelm Wilms with a text by Hendrik Tollens. The same melody also served as the basis for a variation set by Servais’s friend Carl Schuberth, composed around 1829 and published in 1836, though it is unknown whether Servais was directly influenced by Schuberth’s work.

Servais’s fantasy opens with a dramatic D-minor tutti featuring imitative counterpoint before presenting the anthem plainly in D major. Four variations follow, alternating expressive lyricism with virtuoso display. The first and third variations are slow, the first rhapsodic and expressive, the third more melancholic, while the fourth serves as a brilliant finale. Its dazzling passagework recalls similar writing in Carnaval de Venise, La Fille du Régiment, and the Fantaisie sur deux célèbres romances de Lafont.

ASTA Level: 6