Fung learned this concerto when he was 12 and deciding to become a professional musician, and his long experience with the piece informs this detailed lesson on the first movement. He addresses key initial concerns such as how to choose a good tempo, switching accurately between triple and duple rhythms, choosing suitable dynamics when Saint-Saëns omits them, and when to accompany the orchestra instead of acting as soloist.
Fung’s technical advice includes a detailed look at bowing Saint-Saëns’ tricky triplet articulations and how to shift “like a jetpack.” For the famous double stop passage, he offers a comprehensive approach: isolating the challenges by practicing simplified versions, using simple and comfortable fingerings, and carefully managing left-hand pressure.

This is Fung’s favorite movement, featuring a playful yet rigid character, like a march of toy soldiers. He examines the meaning of allegretto and the need to feel the meter both in 3 and 1 simultaneously, which play into the cello’s accompanimental rather than soloistic role and how to deploy vibrato to enhance the orchestral writing.

Fung breaks down the cadenza by providing exercises to isolate its two major challenges: intonation in thumb position and triplet right hand bowing. His creative fingerings and tips on trill technique and exercises are invaluable for the effervescent character of this movement .

This vibrant finale offers cellists a interpretive puzzle: Saint-Saëns’ tempo markings are sparse, so Fung offers guidance for choosing a tempo based a close reading of the score. The return of the first movement theme brings with it the return of challenges of triple vs duple, and the beautiful second theme makes adds the difficulty of syncopation.

Fung offers a step-by-step approach to practicing the virtuosic passages, with patient attention to finger spacing, efficient shifts, and consistent bow distribution at any tempo. His exclusive fingerings (printed in the workbook) streamline the learning process. In addition to practicing the false harmonics as octaves, Fung presents a highly original idea to split the passage between two different false harmonics for the perfect compromise between projection and ease of intonation.

Much of the improvement of our playing happens in our warm-up, which we then implement in our repertoire. Etudes are the core of this warm-up; they simplify the challenging concepts and make it easier to correct our mistakes. In this video, Fung offers a polyrhythmic warmup scale and eight etudes carefully chosen to prepare you for the Saint-Saëns: five Feuillard exercises, two Popper studies, and one Lee etude addressing thumb position intonation and changing rhythmic subdivisions; bowing slurs sandwiching two separate notes; spiccato with string crossings; finger replacement shifts; legato cantabile playing; big shifts; harmonics; and asymmetric bowing.