Franchomme - La Gazza Ladra de Rossini. Fantaisie, Op. 38 (Urtext Edition, Piano Version)

Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884) was one of the leading French cellists of the nineteenth century. He remains best remembered for his Caprices, Op. 7, and Études, Op. 35, as well as for a number of influential transcriptions of Chopin’s music. His close friendship with Chopin is well documented. Together they composed the Grand Duo concertant for piano and cello on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable, and although uncredited, Franchomme is known to have contributed to the preparation of the cello part of Chopin’s Cello Sonata, Op. 65.

Beyond his original works and transcriptions, Franchomme composed a number of fantasies on popular melodies. Among these is the Fantaisie sur La gazza ladra de Rossini, dedicated to the cellist Émile Horteloup. Franchomme prepared the work in versions with both piano and string quintet accompaniment, a common mid-nineteenth-century practice that allowed performers to present concert pieces either in recital or in a chamber-orchestral setting. Horteloup was also the owner of the celebrated “Vaslin Composite” Stradivari cello, though relatively little else is currently known about him.

Our edition presents, for the first time in modern publication, a quintet score of this Fantaisie. All editorial interventions and deviations from the original texts are indicated in the score or fully described in the Critical Commentary. The piano part has been revised to reduce excessive cross-staff notation in favor of more intuitive clef changes. In the quintet version, the cello and bass lines have been separated into distinct parts, and the top notes of certain double-stops have been removed from the bass part for clarity.

ASTA level: 3.5 to 4