Sérénade pour le pianoforte avec accompagnement de violoncelle

About this piece

Maria Szymanowska, the Warsaw-born pianist who became court pianist to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in St Petersburg, wrote this single-movement Sérénade for piano with cello and published it with Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig (plate 3077, dated c.1819 on IMSLP). The title page dedicates it to Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen, who played the cello himself and for whom Chopin later wrote his Introduction and Polonaise Op. 3. Although the piano is billed first, the cello part is a real partner: an Andante in 6/8 that moves from a lyrical opening through chromatic, flat-key episodes marked 'espres' and 'dolce' to a chain of trills and a short cadenza ad libitum before the final a tempo. Recordings include a 2016 live performance by Antoine Desmard (cello) and Teresa Janina Czekaj (piano) of Trio Xanthos at the Bibliothèque Polonaise in Paris, and a 2020 Acte Préalable recording by Sławomir P. Dobrzański and Cheung Chau on 'Maria Szymanowska - Complete Piano Works'. The original Breitkopf parts are free on IMSLP and through the Polish National Library's Polona digital library.

Technical overview

One movement (Andante, 6/8), about 6 minutes. The cello needs secure high-register playing in bass clef and old-style treble clef, arpeggiated three- and four-note chords, strings of trills, chromatic passages in flat keys, and a short free cadenza with accelerando, ritardando and a tempo; long rests call for careful counting against the piano.

Technical focus

• Double Stops
• Shifting
• Dotted Rhythms
• 2 Note Slurs
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Rubato
• Ensemble Skills