The Mazurka in D minor, Op. 12, the second of Popper’s six published mazurkas (excluding Reigen from Im Walde, which is also a mazurka), stands as the most serious and extended in the genre. Curiously, this work appeared in print slightly before the better-known Op. 11 Mazurka. It features an arpeggiated figure that Popper seems to have favored, since variants of the gesture appear in Spanischer Carneval (Op. 54) and Tarantella No. 2 (Op. 57). The presence of a unison passage, an uncommon texture in the cello repertoire of the period, gives the work further distinction both sonically and technically.

The form is ternary (ABA). Technically, the opening A section contains almost two complete thematic statements, though the second is abbreviated by a transition into a more lyrical B section in the parallel major (D major). The work is dedicated to Popper’s friend, the Swiss cellist Emil Hegar (1843–1921). Hegar studied at the Leipzig Conservatory under Friedrich Grützmacher and later Karl Davydov. In 1866 he became principal cellist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and taught at the Conservatory. He was also the dedicatee of Johan Svendsen’s Cello Concerto and Julius Röntgen’s First Cello Sonata, and he taught Julius Klengel (1859–1933), one of the leading pedagogues of the next generation.

(Excerpted from the preface of the Urtext edition published by Yuriy Leonovich)