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SHOSTAKOVICH – Waltz No.2 – FOUR CELLOS OR LARGER CELLO ENSEMBLE

Other Identification:
The ‘Second Jazz Suite’ was composed by Shostakovich in 1938. Despite its title, the Suite is not particularly based on jazz idioms as such, but was written in the popular light orchestra style of the nineteen-thirties. This second waltz from the Suite was an immediate success and has remained one of his most enduring and popular short compositions.

Movements or sections:
It is in ternary form (ABA); the outer sections are based on a minor mode tune of a particularly haunting beauty, which is passed around the players (here, of course, the various cello players!) and punctuated with a humorous toy soldier march.

Instrumentation:
QUARTET OF FOUR CELLOS, OR FOR A LARGER CELLO ENSEMBLE
It should work equally well with four soloists, or by a larger cello ensemble (in which case it is probably more sensible and interesting to play most of the double-stops as divisi ).

2 PDFs:
1] – General Score
2] – All individual parts

Approximate difficulty:
This is a version for four cellos or larger cello ensemble which is totally playable. I had had for many years a copy of (only) the score of an arrangement – I don’t know by whom – of the same piece, but it was clear that the high registers would cause intonation problems for even the average-to-good cellist. So I do now make a totally new ‘personal’ Johnstone-Music version where the registers have been made far more readily playable, and also transposed downwards into A minor (the original has three flats). I have to say it this might be classed as of ‘medium’ technical level but having said that rather closer to being ‘easy’ than ‘difficult’!

Dedicatee of this presentation (if applicable):
Rodolfo Zanni

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