Ballade pour violoncelle et piano | Ballade pour violoncelle et petit orchestre

Ballade pour violoncelle et piano | Ballade pour violoncelle et petit orchestre
Ballade for cello and piano | Ballade for cello and small orchestra

Year of composition

1949

Duration

16'

Scored for

cello and piano
Version for cello and small orchestra: 2 2 1 1 - 1 0 0 0 - timp. - perc.(2) - strings

Publication information

Version for cello and piano (UE12011); version for cello and small orchestra (UE12011/12012), study score available at Musikproduktion Hoeflich (mph no.469)

Commentary

Ballade for cello and piano or small orchestra
This Ballad was written in 1949, the same period as the Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments. It is original in its version with piano as well as the one with orchestra because, while composing it, I worked on the orchestral score and the piano part simultaneously. I could have called it a concertino or Konzertstück, but I preferred the term ‘ballad’ which links this piece to various others, composed much earlier: for saxophone (1938), for flute (1939), for piano (1939), for trombone (1940). It is based on a statement at the beginning by the cello with double-stopped strings, a statement that reappears at the end, decorated with rapid ornamentations by the orchestra. Between these two points there are various episodes, light, lyrical, ephemeral; it is therefore an extremely free form that the classics would have called ‘Fantasy’. This term did not imply lack of construction, but rather a construction that did not relate to an established model.
 The particular character of this Ballad can be designated fairly precisely by the terms: lyrical and epic.

Text by Frank Martin from A propos de… commentaires de Frank Martin sur ses œuvres (Neuchâtel, 1984) | English translation by Rachel Ann Morgan

Premiere

World première original version for cello and piano: Basle, February 1950. August Wenzinger, cello; Paul Baumgartner, piano
World première version for cello and small orchestra: Zürich, 17 November 1950. August Wenzinger, cello; Paul Sacher, conductor

Recordings (selective list)

  • Version for cello and small orchestra
    Estelle Revaz, cello
    L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève
    Arie van Beek, conductor
    Solo Musica ℗ + © 2021

  • Version for cello and piano
    Christian Poltéra, cello
    Kathryn Stott, piano
    BIS CD-1637 © + ℗ 2007 (FMS184)

  • Version for cello and small orchestra
    Quirine Viersen, cello
    Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
    Kenneth Montgomery, conductor
    Etcetera KTC 1290 ℗ + © CODA BVBA 2005 (FMS057)

  • Version for cello and small orchestra
    Heinrich Schiff, cello
    SWR Symphony Orchester
    Paul Sacher, conductor

  • Version for cello and small orchestra
    ‘Frank Martin - Ballades’
    Peter Dixon, cello
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Matthias Bamert, conductor
    CHANDOS CHAN 9380 ℗ + © 1995 (FMS114)

  • Version for cello and piano
    ‘Frank Martin interprète Frank Martin’
    Henri Honegger, cello
    Frank Martin, piano
    Jecklin-Disco JD 563-2 ℗ + © 1989 (FMS032)

  • Version for cello and small orchestra
    Estelle Revaz, cello
    Orchestre de Chambre de Genève
    Arie van Beek, conductor
    ℗ + © Solo Musica

  • Version for cello and piano
    Paul Watkins, cello
    Lain Brunside, piano
    ASV CD DCA 1010 ℗ + © 1997 (FMS118)

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