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With this work, we enter the 'Twilight Zone' of double-reed repertoire, the Solo de Concours. This type of music is specific to the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires, serving for the special jury that occurs just once each year in which students get the opportunity to advance to the next level of study or to graduate. There are three tiers in the curriculum, but students of genius can, on occasion, override the system after an incredible appearance. The key to it all is in the performance of the Solo. In addition, two regular juries are scheduled each year, so there has always been great need for suitable solo material.

In the beginning, the teachers, themselves composed these works. They were meant to be played with full orchestra, and were, in fact, concertos in three movements, although only a single movement might be played. As the years passed, the full orchestra was supplanted by string orchestra, string quartet or quintet, and finally just piano. The press was invited in to provide reviews of these events; therefore, they functioned somewhat like a New York debut does in the present day.

Not only did the makeup of the accompanying ensemble change over the years, but the solo itself moved from the classical concerto style into the realm of the operatic scena. This made the work of composition much easier on the teachers who were all, in one way or another, involved in theatre orchestras. Many played at the Paria Opéra or, as in the case of Eugène Jancourt (1815-1901), at the Théatre Imperial de l'Opéra Comique; and, to be sure, what Jancourt heard there is reflected in his solos. It should be noted that opéras comiques as good as Georges Bizet's Carmen (1875) were certainly the exception.

As for the Solo at hand, Jancourt presents the solo bassoonist in the role of the tenor voice, utilizing the tenor clef to emphasize this style. To be sure, there are many dips into the bass range. The work begins with a Ritornello for orchestra in G minor followed by a Recitativo for the soloist. This introductory material leads directly into the first Aria set in rounded binary form and in the relative major. It is capped off with a quick-moving coda.

An orchestral tutti joins the foregoing to a slow Cavatina. The first part of it is placed in the tonic minor, but its second half moves to the relative major. There is no recapitulation of the initial material, as befits a Cavatina.

Another tutti leads to the opening recitativo for the bassoon, which is quickly followed by a Cabaletta. Jancourt has foregone a closed structure and jumped instead into a coda of closing themes in order to bring his Scena to a brilliant end.

This particular Solo is the first of nine composed by Jancourt. Although the work was published by the firm of Richault in 1856, it was not utilized as a Concours solo at the Paris Conservatoire until 1883. It is remarkable for the attention to detail in dynamics, articulation, and accompanying figuration.

The parts for the strings had to be recreated from the piano-score by the present editor. The use of terms tutti and tremolo in this score are clear indications that a string orchestra was still in use for the Concours when Jancourt's 1er Solo was composed.