Saint-Saëns - Suite Op. 16b and Romance Op.67 for Cello and Piano (Urtext)

Saint-Saëns’s Suite, Op. 16, was originally composed in 1862 for cello and piano, when the composer was still a young man. Full of life, lyricism, and passion, the work already shows the elegance, clarity, and brilliance that would define Saint-Saëns’s mature style. In 1919, near the end of his life, Saint-Saëns returned to the suite and orchestrated three of the original movements, replacing the third movement, Scherzo, and the fifth movement, Finale, with a Gavotte and Tarantelle. The result is a fascinating late reimagining of an early work: still youthful in spirit, but now colored by the orchestral mastery of the mature Saint-Saëns.

The present critical edition is the first commercially available edition of this orchestral version. It includes the original Gavotte in G minor, in which the English horn replaces the oboe, as well as the Romance, Op. 67, for horn or cello. The 1919 suite deserves renewed attention as a substantial and highly effective concert work, combining Romantic expression, French elegance, and brilliant orchestral writing.

The primary source for this edition is the manuscript orchestral score in Saint-Saëns’s hand, graciously provided by the Martha Blakeney Hodges Collection at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Stiftelsen Musikkulturens Främjande, The Nydahl Collection. Secondary sources include the Hamelle orchestral score published in 1919 and the cello solo part with piano reduction, also published by Hamelle. Several differences among the sources are noted in the score footnotes.

This set includes horn parts in both E and F for the Romance, Op. 67.

Best suited for advanced cellists, this edition offers a major addition to the cello-and-orchestra repertoire. The suite gives performers opportunities to explore lyrical phrasing, brilliant passagework, French Romantic style, orchestral dialogue, dance character, and the striking contrast between Saint-Saëns’s youthful invention and late-career orchestral refinement. It is the publisher’s hope that this suite will become a staple of the cello concerto repertoire.

ASTA level: 3–5