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It is impossible to imagine today's cello lessons without the works by Jean-Baptiste Breval (1753-1823).

This sonata is the first of the Six Sonates non difficiles pour le violoncelle Op. 40 (1795). To this day it remains popular among cello teachers and pupils alike. Because of its comfortable tonality and technical simplicity, it is an interesting classical sonata for cello students who are experienced in playing in first position and do not shy away from occasional excursions into other positions.

As a performance piece, the sonata can be accompanied either by a second cello, as in Breval's original version, by piano, or even by both instruments. .

The sonata is particularly suitable for music lessons and concertos in the popular version for violoncello and piano by Joachim Stutschewsky, which was revised for the Schott Student Edition by Rainer Mohrs and edited and prefaced by Beverly Ellis.

The new Schott Student Edition series offers varied literature at five different levels of difficulty, from 1 (easy) to 5 (difficult), for instrumental lessons:

In print or electronic format
Available as printed editions or PDF download

Practising - efficiently and with pleasure
Accompanying tracks of the pieces available as downloads

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 M�ditation is an instrumental entr'acte performed between the scenes of Act II in the opera Tha�s. In the first scene of Act II, Athana�l, a Cenobite monk, confronts Tha�s, a beautiful and hedonistic courtesan and devot�e 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 M�ditation is played by the orchestra. In the second scene of Act II, following the M�ditation, Tha�s tells Athana�l 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.