Pampeana No.2 Op.21 (1950)

“Whenever I crossed the pampa or lived in it for a time,” Ginastera once wrote, “my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy, some full of euphoria and others replete with a profound tranquility, produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of the day… From my first contact with the pampa, there awakened in me the desire to write a work that would reflect these states of spirit.” In fact, between 1947 and 1954 he wrote three such works, all of them under the title    Pampeana – No.1 for violin and piano Op.16, No.2 for cello and piano Op.21, No.3 for orchestra Op.24. Each of the two chamber pieces is described on the title page as a “rhapsody” and they both feature expressive string soliloquies with minimal contributions from the piano, the main role of the latter instrument being to introduce and sustain the rhythms of the dance episodes which intervene from time to time.

The composer said of Pampeana No.2 that "without using any folkloric material, it recalls the rhythms and melodic trends of the Argentine pampas." The dramatic opening, a challenging declaration from the cello emphasised by percussive dissonances on the piano, develops into an extended soliloquy covering most of the cello range. The re-entry of the piano signals the first dance episode, which gradually loses its impetus to make way for another cello monologue, this one with distinctive pizzicato colouring. Introduced by the piano harmonies that are to underpin it, the last soliloquy is a sustained expression of cello melancholy. The work ends with a vigorous malambo dance episode, a short cello cadenza, and a frenetic coda.