Glinka-Servais - Doubt (Сомнение)
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) is often called the father of Russian music for his influential work in opera and Russian romance. One of his most popular romances is Сомнение (Doubt). Glinka prepared several versions of the romance with different instrumentation, and the Belgian cellist-composer François Servais (1807-1866) later transcribed Сомнение for cello and piano, as well as for cello and string quintet.
According to Peter François, a leading researcher on Servais’s life and work, Glinka and Servais met in Brussels in 1854. In 1866, the final year of Servais’s life, Servais performed the quintet version of the romance. Lev Ginsburg, in his History of the Violoncello, quotes Alexander Serov as stating that Servais had already performed Сомнение in 1857. Servais’s repertoire also included other romances by Glinka.
Servais’s transcription of Сомнение for cello and piano is in B-flat minor, while Glinka’s original romance is in D minor. Although the original romance is cast in three strophic stanzas, Servais’s transcription presents only one complete stanza at the beginning. After the second stanza, he inserts an interpolation marked Majeur, which is more virtuosic and uses figurations also found in his Concerto militaire. The transcription then concludes with another stanza in B-flat minor.
Our edition is based on the manuscript housed at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, Fond No. 891, item 264. The source was graciously provided by the National Library of Russia.
ASTA level: 2.5 to 3