Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
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performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Courtesy of Musopen
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The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor (French: Introduction et Rondo capriccioso en la mineur ), Op. 28, is a composition for violin and orchestra written in 1863 by Camille Saint-Saëns for the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate.
History[edit]
In 1863, Saint-Saëns wrote a solo piece for Sarasate: The Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso pour Violin et Orchestre in A minor. The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra was originally intended to be the rousing Finale to Saint-Saëns' first violin concerto, op.20.[1] Despite their later disagreements, Claude Debussy arranged the piece for two pianos in the earlier years of his career.[2]
Style and structure[edit]
The piece opens with a 36-bar theme in A minor, establishing key as well as rhythmic and harmonic themes. The orchestra supports the violin with block chord progressions while the soloist plays virtuosic arpeggios and chromatic scalar passages. Saint-Saëns destabilizes the rhythm of the soloist oscillating between syncopated rising arpeggios and falling eighth notes.[clarification needed] In bar 18 the motion picks up when the tempo indication changes from Andante malinconico to animato and the soloist jumps into a rapid thirty-second note line.
