Romance Op. 37 – for Flute (or Violin) and Piano

Saint-Saëns completed the Romance in D Flat Major on 25 March 1871. If in his concertos for solo instrument and orchestra Saint-Saëns freed himself from the Viennese classical model (reconfiguring it with originality but in the light, certainly, of the formal experimentations of Schumann and of Biedermeier virtuosity), in the Romance opus 37 and other works of similar form (opus 27, 36 and 48) he adopted the Romantic ternary Liedform (A–B–A) – in particular that of Schumann’s Stücke and Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte – and transcended the idiomaticity of the respective solo instruments, now interchangeable ad libitum (flute or violin, in the case of opus 37), thereby making the pieces more widely usable and emphasizing their cantabile quality.