Rondo in A minor

At a glance

• What it isa single-movement piece for solo violin and orchestra, made of a slow Introduction and a capricious, brilliant Rondo.
• Who, when, whySaint-Saëns, twenty-eight, wrote it in 1863 for the young Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate.
• What to listen forthe gloomy melody of the introduction, the bouncing rhythm of the rondo theme, and the breathless virtuosity of the ending.

Listen for

• The introductionover a light string accompaniment, the violin sings a lonely, slow song.
• The rondo themea theme of short, springy rhythms appears and returns several times, with new tunes slipping in between.
• The endingthe violin pours out very fast notes and finishes in a blaze.

When it was written

Sarasate was a Spanish-born violin virtuoso who had already made his name in Europe as a teenager. Saint-Saëns wrote a violin concerto and this piece for him, and Sarasate made them widely known by playing them on many stages. The Spanish rhythms throughout recall the performer's homeland.

A rondo is a piece in which the same theme returns again and again with other tunes in between. "Capriccioso" means capricious, so this is a dance that keeps returning on a whim.