Andante serioso
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1915
- Duration
- 8'22''
- Publisher
- Edition·S (Danish Classical Music, DCM.042)
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About this piece
A single-movement piece of about eight minutes for cello and piano, dated June 1915 in Dalberg's autograph. Edition·S describes it as a companion to her earlier Fantasi (1911); both were played by cellist Louis Jensen and pianist Henrik Knudsen at her debut composition concert in Copenhagen on 8 November 1915. After the opening Andante comes a forceful Maestoso in 6/8; the Andante music then returns and builds to a fff climax before a quiet Grave ending. It stayed unpublished until Edition·S's 2024 scholarly edition, and was first recorded in 2025 by Jonathan Slaatto and Martin Qvist Hansen (Dacapo).
Technical overview
A sustained, singing line, mostly in tenor clef, with passages in treble clef that climb to E5 on the A string, and a forceful Maestoso section in 6/8 lower on the instrument. The cellist plays long legato phrases and accented chromatic eighth-note lines, and shapes a wide dynamic range from pp to fff, with frequent tempo changes and long piano interludes.
Technical focus
- Shifting
- A String Notes
- Legato
- Accidentals
- Articulation
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Tempo Changes
- Meter Changes
- Collaboration with Piano