Chopin-Servais - Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 (For Cello and Orchestra)

Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2, is one of the most beloved works in the piano repertoire. Like many Romantic-era virtuosos, the Belgian cellist-composer François Servais recognized Chopin’s melodic genius and transcribed the nocturne for cello and piano.

Servais’s transcription places the work in D major, a key especially well suited to the cello. His version follows Chopin’s original text closely, more so than later transcriptions by Pablo Sarasate and David Popper. In three passages, Servais provides both an “easy” and a “difficult” option for the cellist, with the difficult reading remaining closest to Chopin’s original.

Servais’s version was highly popular in its time. From 1863 to 1938, Schott printed more than 7,000 copies of the transcription, and in the 1910s it was recorded by cellists including Anton Hekking, Joseph Hollman, George Rogovoy, and Thomas Weist-Hill.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov later orchestrated Servais’s transcription for solo cello, two flutes, two clarinets, and strings. His orchestration is straightforward and closely based on Servais’s piano part. The manuscript of the orchestration is held at the National Library of Russia.

This edition includes the orchestral score and parts. The solo cello part is not included and should be obtained separately.