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Scan 285
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
26 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 257. See the scan on archive.org.
1The delightful andante should be played in a spirit of quietude and of love rewarded. It is a species of thanksgiving, and its lovely theme should be played with a bowing of generous breadth and with nobility of feeling.
3At seven measures after the letter L, the first note of each group of six eighths should be sustained, as follows:
5Four measures before letter M play with great calmness and, as it were, with metronomic exactness.
7At letter M the violinist has an opportunity of showing what he can do in the matter of sustained bowing, and how perfectly he is able to effectuate his changes of tone.
9Measures 7, 8 and 9, after letter M, should be played most expressively.
11The expressional phrase "con grazia sempre tranquillo," found eight measures before the letter N, is entirely devoid of good sense; the period is one of transition, which only forecasts an unmixed joy to come.
13Two measures before letter N—and avoiding all melodramatic effect—one should play with deep feeling.
15The letter N indicates the coda, and when I had the honor of playing this concerto with Saint-Saëns in Geneva, in 1896, he made a reservation with regard to my conception of the tempo of this period. The tempo should be slightly augmented and the eight measures should be divided by a well proportioned crescendo. At measure 9 the player must resist the tendency to bolt, and I know from my own experience that he will be almost obliged to force himself to restraint here.
17Letter O: play here with great passion and a manifest sentiment of nobility. These last measures are extremely difficult to render, they should be presented in a consecutively moving diminuendo,
19ending, as it were, in the clouds, but followed by two abrupt fortissimo chords.
21THE CONCERTO IN B MINOR
22by Camille Saint-Saëns, Op. 61
23(1835-1921)
25The fact that Saint-Saëns should have added so noble a work as is this Concerto to the literature of the violin calls forth the reflection that there is
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