This arrangement was modified in its edition and violin indications. A very clean piano part was written. Very good edition of the entire score.

The Méditation is an instrumental entr'acte performed between the scenes of Act II in the opera Thaïs. In the first scene of Act II, Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, confronts Thaïs, a beautiful and hedonistic courtesan and devotée of Venus, and attempts to persuade her to leave her life of luxury and pleasure and find salvation through God. It is during a time of reflection following the encounter that the Méditation is played by the orchestra. In the second scene of Act II, following the Méditation, Thaïs tells Athanaël that she will follow him to the desert.

The piece is in D major and is approximately five minutes long (although there are a number of interpretations that stretch the piece to over six minutes). Massenet may also have written the piece with religious intentions; the tempo marking is Andante religioso, signifying his intention that it should be played religiously (which could mean either strictly in the tempo or literally with religiously-founded emotion) and at walking tempo, or around 60 BPM. The piece opens with a short introduction, with the solo violin quickly entering with the motif. After the violin plays the melody twice, the piece goes into a section marked animato, gradually becoming more and more passionate (Massenet wrote poco a poco appassionato). The climax is reached at a place marked poco piu appassionato (a little more passion) and is then followed by a short cadenza-like passage from the soloist and returns to the main theme. After the theme is played twice, the soloist joins the piano while playing harmonics on the upper register as the piano quietly play below the solo line.

German - English - French.

Ferdinand Kuchler is regarded as one of the great violin teachers of the 20th century, due, in large part, to his popular violin method. His Concertino remains a popular entry-level piece for students to this day.

The piece is characterized by simplicity, clarity and beauty. The themes and melodies are easily identifiable by children, yet never trite and plain. They are catchy and perfectly reflect Kuchler's educational ideology - "to always separate the difficulties and never demand that the pupil overcome two difficulties at once".

The work is also available in an arrangement for solo violin with string quartet accompaniment (with double-bass ad lib.)(Schott, SE 1002). The viola part can be replaced by a third violin if necessary. By using the parts for multiple players, this can also be performed by a beginner string orchestra.

This edition is part of the new Schott Student Edition series which offers varied literature at five different levels of difficulty, from 1 (easy) to 5 (difficult), for instrumental lessons:

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Accompanying tracks of the pieces available as downloads.