Saint-Saëns: Introduction et rondo capriccioso, Op.28

Introduction

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.

years of his career.

Style and structure

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. 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.