Puneña No. 2, Op. 45 (Hommage à Paul Sacher)
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1976
- Duration
- 9'
- Publisher
- Boosey & Hawkes, edited by Mstislav Rostropovich
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About this piece
Ginastera wrote Puneña No. 2 for unaccompanied cello in 1976, when Mstislav Rostropovich asked twelve composers for cello pieces to mark the conductor Paul Sacher's seventieth birthday. Rostropovich gave the premiere in Zurich on 2 May 1976. The title points to the Puna, the high Andean plateau of northern Argentina, and the two movements take their names from Andean music: Harawi, after the Quechua song of longing and lament, and Wayno Karnavalito, after the huayno and carnavalito dances. It is one of the most demanding works in the solo cello repertoire, and its extended techniques and folk sources have drawn scholarly study.
Technical overview
Two movements for unaccompanied cello, about nine minutes, with extended techniques drawn from Andean folk music.