Largo in F# minor for cello and piano

The 6 December 1903, Jean Cras wrote from Bizerte in Tunisia: “my Andante for cello will soon be finished. For some days now, I think that it is very good. In any case, whatever the quality of feelings which are the soul of my compositions, I feel that their expression is now more virile, more robust.”  Is he alluding here to the Largo in F# minor? It is legitimate to think so, for we do not know of another piece which fits his description. In the manuscript sources, the existence of separate parts for violin and viola indicate the adaptations of the cello part for other stringed instruments. For a long time, unpublished (published by Symétrie in 2014), the Largo was first performed posthumously the 22 November 1934 by André Lévy at the cello and Colette Cras (the composer’s daughter) at the piano. At the time of its composition, Cras had already an experience of a few works of chamber music. We might consider notably the Voyage Symbolique for trio with piano (1899) and the three sonatas respectively for violin, viola and cello (1900-1901). He worked on the Largo whereas he had begun the Poèmes intimes for piano and would soon begin his Trio with piano n.2. His piece for cello includes modal colours which would become more significant in his mature works. The painful meditation of the first part intensifies in the central episode, which also becomes more animated. The last part takes up again, with some changes, the material of the first part and finishes with an expression of languid sadness.