Servais - Souvenir de St. Pétersbourg, Op. 15 (Urtext Edition)

St. Petersburg, Russia was a special place for Servais. While on tour in the city in 1839-40 he met his future wife Sophie Feygin (daughter of a steward of Czar Nicolas I); they married in 1842. According to the Servais specialist PeterFrançois, the first known performance of Grande Fantaisie, Souvenirs de St. Pétersbourg took place on 4 July 1840,

St. Petersburg, Russia was a special place for Servais. While on tour in the city in 1839-40 he met his future wife Sophie Feygin (daughter of a steward of Czar Nicolas I); they married in 1842. According to the Servais specialist Peter François, the first known performance of Grande Fantaisie, Souvenirs de St. Pétersbourg took place on 4 July 1840, and one newspaper mentioned that it was composed while in Russia.

The first known version of the piece has the title Fantaisie et Variations No. 18. A copy in the hand of Ulysse Claes (45106-5) is housed at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. This work likely predated the St. Petersburg tour. The second surviving version of the piece is called Fantaisie élégante (45106-6) also in the hand of Ulysse Claes. Fantaisie élégante is included in the appendix of the current edition. Finally, the published version of the piece is called Souvenir de St. Pétersbourg: Fantaisie. Schott published this version on 28 May 1856 for cello with piano, orchestra, or string quintet accompaniments. Both early versions of the piece also have string accompaniments. The autograph of the final version is housed at the National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, in the Nikolay Yusupov Collection. Yusupov (1827—1891) was the dedicatee of Souvenir.

It is unclear if Servais used a particular Russian melody as the subject of Souvenir and its earlier versions. The melody is reminiscent of Mikhail Glinka's 1834 song "Не называй ее небесной" (Do Not Call Her Heavenly). Fantaisie élegante is 323 bars long, containing a 102-bar introduction, a theme with three variations with a slow, solo interlude between variations Nos. 2 and 3, and a finale, which Servais reused in the published version of Fantaisie Burlesque (ou le Carnaval de Venise). Souvenir is 327 bars long, but the duration is about 2 minutes shorter. The introduction is 55 bars long, followed by a simplified theme with three variations and a finale serves as the final variation. The original second variation and interlude were removed; a slow, minor-key variation was inserted before the finale. The published version of Souvenir presents the fewest technical challenges of all of Servais's published works, making it a great entry point for a cellist who might otherwise be intimidated by his works.

Our edition is based on the first edition of Souvenir published by Schott in May 1856 and the manuscript copy of Fantaisie élégante housed at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.