announcing Beethoven’s Egmont Overture

arranged for 8 cellos by Raïff Dantas Barreto

This article is an expanded version of the Editorial Notes that can be found in the published edition, available at this link. A recording of this piece where all eight parts are performed by Maestro Barreto can be watched here.

EDITORIAL NOTES

This edition marks the beginning of an exciting new series for the Artistic Score Engraving label, dedicated to arrangements of the brightest stars of the Classical Music firmament. Following our renowned focus on cello music, these will be, first and foremost, dedicated to arrangements for cello ensembles, or to the reduction of concertos for cello and orchestra for more manageable strings-only groups.

The first gem of this collection is also the first edition of our catalogue dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827). Brazilian Maestro Raïff Dantas Barreto, 1st Solo Cello of the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo in Brazil, reached out to us to create an edition of his arrangement of the Egmont Overture, Op. 84, for eight cellos, which he had masterfully recorded with himself in each cellist’s role.

It was the greatest honour to have him inaugurate this new series. In other, more scholarly, editions, I took on the task of writing all the editorial notes myself, but in this case, I believed it more valuable to have the arranger share his vision with all of you. After this brief introduction, you will find the Notes from the Arranger section, in English, Italian, and Portuguese.

About this edition

This arrangement is dedicated to Italian cellist Giovanni Gnocchi and comes in a full score and eight independent cello parts, all with perfect page turns. The physical edition, available later in 2024, will come in an elegant, premium slipcase containing all the nine booklets.

The Editor

Michele Galvagno

Belgrade, Serbia — September 1, 2023

Notes from the Arranger

Whenever I play some large symphonic work with a nice solo for the oboe, the flute, or for some other instrument, I think, “It might as well be for cello.” That’s why I wanted to transcribe these works for cello-orchestra and thus realise the dream of playing them in their entirety on the cello.

Beethoven‘s Egmont Overture is one of the works my father listened to the most and which became a part of my life from an early childhood. This work was one of those that made me dream of becoming a musician one day.

When I started transcribing large works for cello, it was one of the first that came to mind. The more I immersed myself in the work of the Bonn master, though, the more I was afraid to transcribe his beautiful Overture. One day, I decided to take the chance, but the coda, with the entries of the flute and of the violins, in a wonderful crescendo that culminates with the scales of the piccolo, worried me. Only after I got the idea of using an artificial harmonic glissando with the jété bow to achieve the piccolo part did I manage to finish this transcription which we now present to you.

Completing a good transcription is above all a timbre challenge. To achieve this, when we play a solo written for bassoon or horn, for example, we need to try to replicate it as close as possible to the original instrument. In this way, we will have a varied sound palette and we will obtain a richer interpretation.

The cello is the instrument that gets the best results when we think of an orchestra, as it has good bass and its high register is pleasant, unlike other string instruments. As a Brazilian cellist, I have played the Bachianas Brasileiras no. 1 and no. 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos countless times. While playing them, I’ve always felt that we could perform just about any large orchestral work, as long as it was well transcribed. Once I acquired sufficient technical knowledge, I started this work, with the intention of expanding the repertoire of our wonderful instrument.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Arranger

Raiff Dantas Barreto