Camille Saint-Saëns on Music Theory Print

Africa (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Following the loss of his mother in 1888, a devastated Camille Saint-Saëns contemplated suicide. Saint-Saëns had made a commitment to compose a new piece for pianist Marie-Aimée Roger-Miclos, and in a letter dated 20 September 1889 confessed to her to being struck by grief following his mother’s death and unable to write a composition of any importance. Battling his severe depression, Saint-Saëns sought solace in his favorite retreats, Egypt and Algeria. It was during this time that he found inspiration for Africa, a fantasia which draws heavily from North African influences. Saint-Saëns began the composition in March 1891 while he was in Cairo and completed it within a month, though continuing working on the orchestration in Algiers in June. The score was first published in Paris by his longtime publisher Auguste Durand: in October 1891, an arrangement for two pianos was the first to be published, orchestral parts were prepared in November, the piano solo version was completed in December, and the orchestral score appeared in February 1892. In a letter to Durand, Saint-Saëns described the work as a derivative of the Suite algérienne, Op. 60, and expressed his hope that it might overshadow his Rhapsodie d’Auvergne, Op. 73, as it was “more developed”. Despite Saint-Saëns’s apprehensions about the piece’s performance challenges, Roger-Miclos enthusiastically took on the work, expressing her confidence in her ability to master it. The premiere was held on 25 October 1891 at the Concerts du Châtelet in Paris, performed by Roger-Miclos and conducted by Édouard Colonne. Subsequent performances took place throughout Europe and in the United States, often with Saint-Saëns himself at the piano.

Ascanio

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Composition history#

Ascanio was composed by Saint-Saëns during 1887–1888. Saint-Saëns chose the subject of the historical figure of Benvenuto Cellini largely due to his friendship with Meurice who, in addition to writing the play about Cellini, also helped Dumas write the 1843 novel. The subject also appealed to Saint-Saëns’ long-term desire to base his operas in French history. The opera’s libretto largely follows Meurice’s play, although it does not include a scene where Cellini runs out of metal while casting a statue. The only notable departure from the play is the third act which is set at a fête at Fontainebleau. The music for this act includes a lengthy divertissement of 12 dances which is highly reminiscent of French Baroque opera. The opera premiered at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 1890 to a poor reception. George Bernard Shaw, after attending the premiere, remarked “I need not waste my words on the music of it. There is not an original phrase in it from beginning to end.” The work did not see a revival until 1921, the year of Saint-Saëns’ death; however, a section of the ballet music is a popular excerpt for flute players.

Barcarolle (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Barcarolle was Saint-Saëns’s second attempt at composing for this combination of instruments, with an 1897 attempt being abandoned after five and a half pages. In the first performance, which took place at the musical society La Trompette on 18 May 1898, the piano was played by Louis Diémer, the violin by Guillaume Rémy, the cello by Jules Delsart, with the composer playing the harmonium. The work is dedicated to Antonio Jeanbernat, who initiated two festivals of Saint-Saëns’ works in Barcelona.

Bassoon Sonata (Saint-Saëns)

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Structure#

The work consists of three movements: A performance takes approximately 13 minutes.

Reception#

The musical scholar Jean Gallois calls the Bassoon Sonata “a model of transparency, vitality and lightness”, containing humorous touches but also moments of peaceful contemplation.

External links#

- , performed by Francesco Bossone and Akanè Makita

Caprice sur des airs danois et russes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 1887, Saint-Saëns was engaged by the French Red Cross for seven Easter concerts in Russia with the Imperial Opera Orchestra. He invited flutist Paul Taffanel, oboist Georges Gillet and clarinetist to come with him, and wrote the Caprice sur des airs danois et russes specially for them, just before leaving Paris. The premiere took place on 21 April 1887 in Saint Petersburg, with the composer on the piano. The highlight of the concerts was reportedly the Caprice, though the programs also included various piano pieces by Saint-Saëns and ballet music from his operas, as well as his works for flute and orchestra (Tarantelle, Romance, and Prélude du Déluge), oboe solos by Handel, Gillet and Diémer, and clarinet works by Weber, Mozart and Saint-Saëns. Anton Rubinstein, at that time director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, was reportedly so impressed that he made all the wind students attend the final concert in Saint Petersburg on 26 April, so they could “get some idea of exactly what could be achieved on these instruments”. After two more concerts in Moscow, the four musicians returned to Paris, though they would again present the work in London in June that year. Saint-Saëns would give another performance of the work on 31 August 1904 in Rio de Janeiro, together with Pedro de Assis, Agostinho Gouvéa, and Francisco Nunes.

Carnival of the Animals (ballet)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

Oliver Pendleton Percy III, a little boy, falls asleep during a visit to the American Museum of Natural History. The narrator appears as the school nurse who transforms into a female elephant.

Production#

Christopher Wheeldon and John Lithgow met in 2002 when the two worked on the musical Sweet Smell of Success as choreographer and actor respectively. After that, Wheeldon invited Lithgow, who is also an author, to write the narrations and perform in his ballet Carnival of the Animals. Wheeldon had said that since the start of the creative process, it was determined that the performers are “people first, then animals”, and he “wanted to move away from the clichéd bunny ears and fluffy tails”, therefore the animal characteristics are only subtly implied. and at the 2005 revival, for which he took time off from the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to do so. He also appeared in the Houston Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet productions in 2007 and 2008 respectively. In the 2013 New York City Ballet revival, actor Jack Noseworthy served as the narrator.

Cavatine (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Cavatine was composed in 1915 in connection with the composer’s participation in the World’s Fair in San Francisco. Saint-Saëns spent seven weeks at the fair, conducting three concerts devoted exclusively to his own works, including the orchestral piece Hail! California, which was composed specifically for the occasion. The musical events at the World’s Fair were organized by George W. Stewart, a trained trombonist and former member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who had previously planned the musical presentations of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Saint-Saëns’ successful journey and good relationship with Stewart likely inspired him to thank the trombonist with a composition for his instrument. After leaving San Francisco on July 9 and sailing back to France from New York on July 17, Saint-Saëns composed the Cavatine immediately upon his return to Paris, completing it by early August. In a letter to Stewart dated 7 August 1915, Saint-Saëns wrote: “In New York, on the ship, in Bordeaux it was not possible for me to write the piece I promised you. But right after I returned home, it was the first thing I worked on. It now has to make the long journey to you. It is at the copyist’s, and I hope that you will receive it before the end of the month”. The composer had a copy of the score made and autographed for Stewart before sending it, demonstrating his high regard for the trombonist. Upon receiving the score, Stewart sent a telegram effusively thanking Saint-Saëns: “Delighted beyond measure with Cavatina. It is unquestionably the most beautiful composition ever written for trombone.” Saint-Saëns remarked to his publisher with self-irony, “As one knows, it is easy for the one-eyed man to be king in the country of the blind!”, referring to the sparse solo literature for trombone at the time. The autograph score was used as the engraver’s copy for the first edition, published by Durand in October 1915. It is unknown if the Cavatine was premiered during Saint-Saëns’ lifetime, or if Stewart ever publicly performed the work dedicated to him. However, in 1922, the piece was selected by the Paris Conservatoire as an examination piece for the trombone class in honor of the late composer, with the public examination performance on June 24, 1922, possibly serving as the premiere.

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

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Structure and overview#

Saint-Saëns broke with convention in writing the concerto. Instead of using the normal three-movement concerto form, he structured the piece in one continuous movement. This single movement contains three distinct sections. Those sections, tightly structured, share interrelated ideas. Saint-Saëns’ contact with Franz Liszt while serving as organist at the Église de la Madeleine may have led him to use cyclic form in his orchestral works. Along with the solo cello, the concerto is scored for an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. The work is split into three different movements as follows: Saint-Saëns very often uses the solo cello here as a declamatory instrument. This keeps the soloist in the dramatic and musical foreground, the orchestra offering a shimmering backdrop. The music is tremendously demanding for soloists, especially in the fast third section. This difficulty has not stopped the concerto from becoming a favourite of the great virtuoso cellists.

Cello Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The two movements are: The first part of the first movement is in ternary form. The second part is a prayer, in E major, also in ternary form. The first movement ends with a scale in artificial harmonics, like the scale in the First Cello Concerto. The second movement is a moto perpetuo in G minor. It ends abruptly in a cadenza, followed by a major-key recapitulation of the first movement, and a coda. Along with the solo cello, the concerto is scored for an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

Cello Sonata No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Cello Sonata No. 1 was composed around the turn of the year 1872/73, along with several other important works for violoncello, including the Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 and the Allegro appassionato in B minor, Op. 43 for cello and piano. Saint-Saëns likely drew inspiration for these works from his musician friends, as they are dedicated to well-known French cellists of the day with whom the composer often performed, such as Auguste Tolbecque and Jules Lasserre. The work’s bleak undertone is often interpreted as a reflection of the tumultuous events surrounding its composition, including the war recently lost against Germany, the subsequent turmoil of the Paris Commune, and Saint-Saëns’s personal grief over the loss of his beloved great-aunt Charlotte Masson, who died in February 1872. The Cello Sonata was completed in October 1872, and according to the recollections of Charles-Marie Widor, it had its first performance at one of Saint-Saëns’s famous Monday soirées in Paris, where “the listeners were thrilled, save for Clémence Saint-Saëns, the composer’s mother, who branded the finale as ‘worthless.’” However, the composer was not satisfied with the original finale and wrote a new closing movement dated 31 December 1872. Saint-Saëns later wrote to his friend Charles Lecocq: “When I wrote my sonata for piano and violoncello, the finale was just not up to scratch. So I had to put it back in the drawer for quite a while until I was able to write another one very different from the first.” The first and last pages of the Andante movement reproduce textually the music of an improvisation played by Saint-Saëns the previous year on the organ of Saint-Augustin. The definitive version of the Sonata, with the new finale, was premiered on 7 December 1872 at the Société nationale de musique, played by Auguste Tolbecque and Saint-Saëns. The work was published by Durand in May 1873 and was dedicated to Jules Lasserre, a violoncello virtuoso with whom Saint-Saëns often performed chamber music. The Cello Sonata quickly made its way into the concert repertoire and was recognized for its demanding and often highly virtuosic writing.

Cello Sonata No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Camille Saint-Saëns composed the sonata in March 1905 while staying in Biskra, Algeria, where he found ideal working conditions due to the quietness and mild weather. He had been reminded by his cellist friends and publisher Auguste Durand to write a second cello sonata, having composed his first, the Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32, nearly 30 years earlier. On March 4, 1905, Saint-Saëns informed Durand that he had begun work on the new sonata. In subsequent letters, he described the work’s concept and style, writing on March 16, “The Sonata is almost finished. I am in the finale which constitutes the fourth paw of the quadruped; the second is a Scherzo con Variazioni, the third a Romanza that will make the cellists happy.” Two days later, he reported, “It is finally finished, this accursed sonata! Will it please or not? That is the question. It is rather difficult, but not unduly so.” The sonata was first performed privately on April 13, 1905, at the home of Albert Blondel, the director of the Érard piano factory, by cellist Joseph Hollmann and the composer himself. Saint-Saëns later recounted how, the day before the performance, Hollmann appeared to him, visibly distressed, and confessed that he had forgotten his score in a carriage. Saint-Saëns, undeterred by the predicament, offered to rewrite the entire sonata, and spent part of the night and the following day on the task, and the performance took place as scheduled. Saint-Saëns reflected that the unfortunate incident had a positive outcome, as the new copy, although created under time pressure, turned out to be superior to the original. The public premiere was given by Auguste Tolbecque and pianist Aline Riffaud on October 27, 1905, in Niort, before the dedicatee, Jules Griset, performed it with Saint-Saëns in Paris on November 7. Griset was a long-time friend of Saint-Saëns who owned a private theatre and occasionally played the piano accompaniment at the musical society La Trompette. Griset expressed his gratitude for the dedication in a letter dated September 3, 1905: “Yesterday, your publisher sent me your – oh, what am I saying – my Sonata. … It is superb, full of poetry and delectable surprises, and I thank you for the great honour that you have bestowed upon my humble self by placing my name above it.” The work was published by Durand in July 1905. Saint-Saëns continued to promote the sonata, performing it with various cellists during his concert tours. In a letter to Jacques Durand on July 13, 1906, he wrote, “Enormous success yesterday at Hollmann’s concert. The first appearance of the new sonata could not have been better received; Hollmann played it admirably as well as the First Sonata , where I finally heard the phrase of the finale rendered as it should be. … Decidedly, if there is no mistake, the Second Sonata is very superior to the first.”

Clarinet Sonata (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work consists of four movements. A performance takes approximately 16 minutes. The theme of the first movement is reprised at the end of the fourth movement.

Reception#

For the musical scholar Jean Gallois, the Clarinet Sonata is the most important of the three wind sonatas: he calls it “a masterpiece full of impishness, elegance and discreet lyricism” amounting to “a summary of the rest”. The work contrasts a “doleful threnody” in the slow movement with the finale, which “pirouettes in time”, in a style reminiscent of the 18th century. Today the sonata is part of the standard repertoire of the clarinet.

Cyprès et lauriers

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Structure#

The composition is structured in two movements: Lasting not quite 20 minutes, the piece is program music divided into two parts. The first, “cyprès” (“cypress”), is a mournful dirge adagio for organ solo, recalling a mournful cypress. Once the orchestra makes its entrance, there is an uplifting and sprightly interplay between the organ and orchestra, reminiscent of a militaristic march (hence the “lauriers”, or “laurels”) that makes liberal use of brass and a large percussion band (unusually including a snare drum).

Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns)

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Analysis#

According to legend, Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the cockerel crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year. The piece opens with a harp playing a single note, D, twelve times (the twelve strokes of midnight) which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The solo violin enters playing the tritone, which was known as the diabolus in musica (“the Devil in music”) during the Medieval and Baroque eras, consisting of an A and an E—in an example of scordatura tuning, the violinist’s E string has actually been tuned down to an E to create the dissonant tritone. : The first theme is heard on a solo flute, followed by the second theme, a descending scale on the solo violin which is accompanied by soft chords from the string section. The first and second themes, or fragments of them, are then heard throughout the various sections of the orchestra. The piece becomes more energetic and at its midpoint, right after a contrapuntal section based on the second theme, there is a direct quote played by the woodwinds of Dies irae, a Gregorian chant from the Requiem that is melodically related to the work’s second theme. The Dies irae is presented unusually in a major key. After this section the piece returns to the first and second themes and climaxes with the full orchestra playing very strong dynamics. Then there is an abrupt break in the texture and the coda represents the dawn breaking (a cockerel’s crow, played by the oboe) and the skeletons returning to their graves. The piece makes particular use of the xylophone to imitate the sounds of rattling bones. Saint-Saëns uses a similar motif in the Fossils movement of The Carnival of the Animals. The progression and melody of the minor waltz are similar to the jibes (e.g. “their sweethearts all are dead”) of the Sailors’ Chorus in “Helmsman/Steersman, Leave Your Watch”, which begins the third act of Wagner’s earlier opera, “The Flying Dutchman”.

Déjanire

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Composition history#

Déjanire began its life in 1898 as a play with accompanying symphonic music, choruses and a ballet. Fernand Castelbon de Beauxhostes, one of the owners of a newly constructed arena in Béziers (used primarily for staging bullfights), wanted to make Béziers a centre for the performance of open-air opera as well. He persuaded Saint-Saëns to write the score for a performance of Louis Gallet’s epic verse-drama Déjanire to inaugurate the project. At first Saint-Saëns was reluctant to have his music performed in what he called an “abominable temple of blood”. However, Castelbon managed to convince him by inviting him to visit the arena where his arrival was greeted by hidden musicians playing in his honour. In August 1898 Déjanire opened in Béziers with two performances before 12,000 spectators each time. The reception was ecstatic with Saint-Saëns conducting a huge musical ensemble consisting of a choir of hundreds, massed military bands and an orchestra that included 18 harps and an array of 25 trumpets. Although fatally ill and suffering from deafness, Louis Gallet managed to attend the second performance. In his memoirs Saint-Saëns recalled: In spite of everything, including his ill health which made the trip very painful, he wanted to see his work once more. He heard nothing, however – neither the artists, the choruses, nor even the applause of the several thousand spectators who encored it enthusiastically. A little later he passed on, leaving in his friends’ hearts and at the work-tables of his collaborators a void which it is impossible to fill. Twelve years later, Saint-Saëns transformed Gallet’s play into a fully-fledged opera to fulfill a commission from the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Gabriel Fauré was in the audience for its world premiere on 14 March 1911, conducted by Léon Jehin and directed by Raoul Gunsbourg.

Étienne Marcel (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Recordings#

*Radio broadcast recording: Étienne Marcel – Alain Fondary; Béatrix – Michèle Lagrange; Eustache – Franck Ferrari; Robert de Loris – Daniel Galvez-Vallejo; Jean Maillard – Philippe Fourcade; Marguerite/le dauphin Charles – Alexandra Papadjakou; Choeur de l’Opéra national de Montpellier, Choir of the Opéra de Strasbourg, Orchestre national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, conductor Hubert Soudant, 11 July 1994

Frédégonde

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Performance history#

Frédégonde was premiered by the Opéra at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 18 December 1895. The mise-en-scène was by Alexandre Lapissida, the costumes were designed by , and the choreography was by Joseph Hansen. The set designers for Act 1 were Philippe Chaperon and his son, Émile Chaperon; Act 2, Eugène Carpezat; Act 3, and Alexandre Bailly; and Acts 4 and 5, Amable. The opera only received nine performances, with the last on 14 February 1896. Guiraud’s music was considered foreign to his style, and, although the music by Saint-Saens was deemed better, the result was a work that was very uneven. The first modern revival took place at the Saigon Opera House on 20 October 2017. The production was a collaboration with Grenoble’s La Fabrique Opéra, whose founder, Patrick Suouillot, conducted the Ho Chi Minh City Orchestra. The six main roles were sung by French singers, including Valerie Altaver as Brunhilda, Matthieu Lécroart as Hilpérick and Richard Bousquet as Mérowig. The opera was revived in Saigon because that is where Saint-Saens completed the score, which he had brought with him when he was on a trip to Indochina. The opera was also performed by Theater Dortmund in 2021 (a video was made)

Havanaise (Saint-Saëns)

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Structure#

The composition consists of a single multi-tempo movement marked Allegretto lusinghiero – Allegro – Tempo primo – Allegretto – Allegro non troppo – Più Allegro – Allegretto – Lento and lasts around ten minutes in performance. :

In popular culture#

A minor variation on “Havanaise”, as well as the original piece, make up the main theme of the film The Ninth Gate. A brief segment is played many times on the soundtrack of Rainer Fassbinder’s film Effi Briest. The initial phrase also supplies the melody to the popular song Sugartime by Charles Phillips and Odis Echols.

Hélène (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performance history#

Hélène is the first opera that Saint-Saëns composed for the opera house in Monte Carlo, which was led by enterprising director Raoul Gunsbourg at that time. At its premiere, the opera was presented in conjunction with Jules Massenet’s veristic La Navarraise. The role of Hélène was sung by acclaimed soprano Nellie Melba, who had commissioned Saint-Saëns to write the opera specifically for her. The reviews of the premiere performance, though not rapturous, were generally positive. The opera was subsequently revived at the Opéra-Comique on 18 January 1905, with Mary Garden in the title role and in Monte Carlo again in 1909 and 1916. The Palais Garnier staged the work for the first time on 20 June 1919, with Marcelle Demougeot in the title role. The opera then fell into obscurity until it was recorded for the first time in 2008 by the Belle Époque Chorus and Orchestra Victoria under conductor Guillaume Tourniaire.

Henry VIII (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In an effort to evoke the historical context, Saint-Saëns researched English music from the period and incorporated several English, Scottish, and Irish folk melodies into his score, as well as two airs by William Byrd (c. 1540–1623), contained in The Will Forster Virginal Book (1624), the “Carman’s Whistle” and a section of a tune called “The New Medley”. He also sampled from the Benjamin Cosyn’s Virginal Book (1620), using the opening from the tune “Mr Beauins Service”, along with “Te Deum”. Henry VIII died in 1547, about 70 years before these compositions were published.

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso was originally intended to be the rousing finale to Saint-Saëns’ first violin concerto, Op. 20, though its success as a solo composition at its first performance led Saint-Saëns to publish it separately. The premiere took place on 4 April 1867 at the Champs-Élysées, with Pablo de Sarasate playing the solo part and the composer conducting. Several arrangements of the score have been made, including for violin and piano by Georges Bizet, piano duet by Jacques Durand, two pianos by Claude Debussy and trumpet by Mikhail Nakariakov.

Javotte (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

By 1896, Saint-Saëns had written eight operas, yet only Samson and Delilah had seen success. The idea of Javotte was proposed to Saint-Saëns by Jean-Louis Croze, the two having previously collaborated. Croze would write the libretto for the ballet, loosely basing it on La fille mal gardée. The work was originally to be produced at the Théâtre Marigny where Croze worked, but the theater ran into financial difficulties. The ballet was then jointly backed by the Grand Theatre in Lyon and La Monnaie in Brussels. Days before its premiere, Saint-Saëns reportedly told the publisher, Auguste Durand, “This short ballet will appeal because it is essentially joyful”. The work would premier on December 3, 1896, in Lyon’s Grand Theater.

La jeunesse d'Hercule

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work, with an average performance time of approximately seventeen minutes, comprises a movement of 509 bars, made up of several sections: *Andante sostenuto (quarter note = 72), then *Allegro moderato (quarter note = 108), then *Andantino (dotted quarter note = 63), then *Allegro (half note = 112). La Jeunesse d’Hercule bears the opus number 50 and, in the catalogue of the composer’s works compiled by the musicologist Sabina Teller Ratner, the number 172.

La princesse jaune

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Although La princesse jaune is the third opera that Saint-Saëns composed, it was the first of his operas to be mounted on the opera stage. It was also his first collaboration with Louis Gallet, who would go on to write the librettos for several more operas and become a close friend of Saint-Saëns. La princesse jaune was commissioned for the Opéra-Comique by the company’s director, Camille du Locle, as compensation for not being able to mount Saint-Saëns’s other opera, Le timbre d’argent, as promised due to financial reasons. At the opera’s 1872 premiere, it was grouped into a set of one-act operas which included Emile Paladilhe’s Le passant and Georges Bizet’s Djamileh. The evening was a complete flop and music critics were hostile to all three operas, a fact not surprising for Saint-Saëns, as critics were regularly hostile towards his music during this point in his career. The Opéra-Comique gave four more performances of the opera that season before they dropped it from their repertoire.

Le cygne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The piece is in 6/4 (time signature), with a key signature of G major and a tempo marking andantino grazioso. The slow cello melody is accompanied by almost constant broken chord figurations on the pianos. When performed as a separate movement, not in the context of The Carnival, “The Swan” is frequently played with accompaniment on only one piano. This is the only movement from The Carnival of the Animals that the composer allowed to be played in public during his lifetime. He thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer. “Le cygne” illustrates the fleeting nature of beauty with its interpretation of the legend of the “swan song”: A popular belief among the ancient Greeks, who regarded the swan as among the most beautiful of animals, was that the mute swan is silent until its final moments of life, during which it sings the most beautiful of all birdsongs.

Le timbre d'argent

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Le timbre d’argent is the first opera that Saint-Saëns composed. The opera was commissioned by the Théâtre Lyrique and he began composing the music for it in 1864, finishing in 1865. The work’s premiere was delayed, first by the financial difficulties of the opera house and then later by the Franco-Prussian War. Over the next 12 years Saint-Saëns recomposed the dialogue to form a Grand Opera version, but Albert Vizentini and his Théâtre National Lyrique, who finally staged it,

Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

In the opera, Delilah is responding to Samson’s words "" (Delilah! Delilah! I love you!) which he repeats between the first and second verses of her aria; these interjections are omitted in recital performances or sometimes sung to the changed words “”; Samson’s part in the final 22 bars of the stage aria where he joins Delilah in a duet is also omitted in a recital, although some performers, notably Marilyn Horne and Jessye Norman, have sung Samson’s final words – changed as above, rising to a high B. A performance takes between and minutes. The aria is notated in D major with time signatures of for the verse and common time (4/4) for the refrain (""); the tempo indication is andantino ( = 66) for the verses and un poco più lento (a little slower) for the refrain. The vocal range extends from B 3 to G 5 , with a tessitura from E 4 to E 5 . The instrumentation calls for 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets in A, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 1 trumpet, 3 trombones, timpani, harp and strings. All instrument lines, except the harp, make intensive use of divisi (cellos play in four divisi). The orchestral accompaniment consists mainly of reiterated notes for the first verse and of falling chromatic lines for the second verse; the refrain is accompanied by ascending broken chords. The melismatic setting of the lyrics present a particular challenge for the performance of this aria as it requires legato singing over a wide range.

Oboe Sonata (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

It is written in three movements: The movements are not ordered according to the traditional fast-slow-fast sonata system. The tempo of the movements increases successively. The first movement, Andantino, is music of a pastoral kind, in ternary form ABA. The opening theme of the oboe solo is an echo of the Westminster Quarters. The core of the second movement is a Romance, marked Allegretto. It is preceded by an introduction and followed by an epilogue. The introduction and epilogue are marked ad libitum - that is, the performer is free to choose the tempo considered most appropriate. The last movement, titled Molto allegro, short and brilliant, has passages of great difficulty and virtuosity.

Oratorio de Noël

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Performing forces#

The work is scored for five soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone), SATB mixed chorus, organ, harp, and strings in the standard five sections. The women of the chorus divide into four parts in one movement. The organ plays a significant role in the work, often playing alone, while the harp is limited to three movements.

Text#

Saint-Saëns chose several verses from the Latin Vulgate Bible for the text of the work. “While these texts are not from a single source, it is clear that the traditional church liturgies surrounding Christmas influenced Saint-Saëns. About half of the texts he chose match different portions of two Christmas Offices: the First Mass at Midnight and the Second Mass at Dawn.” One author calls the work “a musical enhancement of the words of the Christmas Office, without interest in the human drama.” The narrative portion of the text, taken from the second chapter of St. Luke, appears in the second movement and tells the part of the traditional Christmas story involving the shepherds. The remainder of the texts, taken from John, Isaiah, Lamentations, and the Psalms, reflect upon the meaning and significance of the event.

Phaéton (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Hector Berlioz was an early influence of Camille Saint-Saëns, and his four programmatic symphonies paved the way for the introduction of the symphonic poem by Franz Liszt. While César Franck was the first French composer to write a symphonic poem between 1845–46, titled Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne, it was neither performed nor published during the composer’s lifetime. Unaware of Franck’s work, Saint-Saëns was an early admirer of the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt. A meeting with the Hungarian composer was the inspiration behind Saint-Saëns’s Le Rouet d’Omphale, but their approach to the genre were quite different. In Liszt’s conception of program music, musical form always took precedence over the extra-musical source. Saint-Saëns’s instead began with details that were worked into large, more abstract forms. According to musicologist Timothy Flynn, “This approach would suggest that Saint-Saéns was thinking more symphonically and less programmatically.” Like Liszt, Saint-Saëns made use of the thematic transformation technique, in which a theme is continuously transformed to suit different moods or scenes of a story, while bringing formal unity and structure to the music. Saint-Saëns would employ this technique in other works, such as in his Symphony No. 3 in C minor. Saint-Saëns had several interests beyond music, and ancient history was one of them. This interest reflects not only in three of the four symphonic poems, but in the chosen texts of several hymns and opera libretti. Later he would even write an essay titled “Note on the Theater Sets of Roman Antiquity.” It is possible the piece may have been inspired by Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera Phaëton.

Piano Concerto No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The work is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. A notable feature is an opening triadic solo for the natural horn which predates the much more famous example of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto by around 20 years. There are three movements:

I. Andante – Allegro assai#

: The piano concerto opens with a Wagnerian horn solo that fades to light strings, a soft piano melody, and more strings before breaking into the main theme of the piece. The horn is prevalent throughout, as are the strings, before concluding in D major.

Piano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I. Andante sostenuto#

: The concerto begins with a piano solo playing a long improvisational introduction in the style of a Bach fantasia. After the orchestra enters, the restless and melancholy first theme is played, again by the piano solo. Saint-Saëns drew the theme from his student Gabriel Fauré’s abandoned Tantum ergo motet. A brief second theme appears, followed by a middle section of increasing degrees of animato. The main theme is recapitulated fortissimo and the soloist is given a long ad libitum cadenza. The Bach-like opening motif returns in the coda.

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The concerto is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. The piece follows standard concerto form. The first movement is brisk and in sonata form, the second movement is slow, and the third movement is fast. The length of the concerto is approximately 29 minutes. The three movements are:

I. Moderato assai#

: The first movement begins in E in common time with the piano playing large and rapid arpeggios. The main theme is then presented by the orchestra. The piano continues the arpeggios while the orchestra elaborates the theme. Later, the piano presents the second theme of the exposition, less rustic than the first, marked molto tranquillo, which is perhaps unique by being played by the piano by itself without any accompaniment, as well as for being in a distant key (D major). A technically brilliant cadenza follows. The cadenza is unusual because it occurs very early in the first movement rather than in its customary place at the end. The development follows after the cadenza. The piano employs many pianistic devices such as parallel octaves, rapid arpeggio and scale figures, and polyrhythms. The recapitulation follows and later the coda, profuse with octaves and large chords. The movement lasts about 14 minutes.

Piano Concerto No. 4 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The concerto is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings. The fourth piano concerto is the composer’s most structurally innovative piano concerto. In one sense, it is structured like a four-movement symphony, but these are grouped in pairs. That is, the piece is divided into two parts, each of which combines two main movements (I. A moderate-tempo Theme and Variations in C minor; II. A slower, related Theme and Variations in A major; III. Scherzo in C minor; IV. Finale in C major). However, in each part there is a bridge-like transitional section, between the two main “movements” – for example, a fugal Andante in part II functions as an interlude between the two main triple-meter sections. The two movements are:

Piano Concerto No. 5 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The concerto is scored for solo piano, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, tam tam, and strings. The concerto has three movements:

I. Allegro animato#

: The first movement alternates several times between two contrasting themes. It begins warmly, introducing a simple subject on the piano, which is imbued at each new variation with increasing energy by a brilliant and technically challenging piano part featuring runs up and down the keyboard. This dissolves into a much slower, more melancholic subject, recalling that of the Andante sostenuto movement of Saint-Saëns’ second piano concerto. Like waves, the two lead into one another until finally the second theme gives way to a gentle coda.

Piano Quartet in B-flat major (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The Piano Quartet in B major is preceded by a Piano Quartet in E major, which Saint-Saëns had written more than 20 years earlier, but remained unpublished until 1992. The Piano Quartet in B major was written in February 1875, an eventful year that marked his marriage to Marie-Laure Truffot and the birth of his son André, the composition of Le Déluge and the fourth piano concerto, and the premiere of Danse macabre. The work was dedicated to Jules Foucault and was premiered on 6 March 1875 at Salle Pleyel with the composer on the piano, Pablo de Sarasate (violin), Alfred Turban (viola), and Léon Jacquard (cello). It has been arranged for piano duet by Auguste Horn (1877) and for two pianos by Jules Griset (1910).

Piano Quartet in E major (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Instead of publishing the work, Saint-Saëns donated the manuscript, with others, to the library of the Conservatoire de Paris. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France assumed the manuscript in 1964. The work was finally published in 1992, by the Éditions Musicales du Marais. It is unknown why the composer left this work unpublished despite having performed it.

Structure#

The quartet is structured in three movements:

Piano Trio No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Camille Saint-Saëns composed his Piano Trio No. 1 in F major, Op. 18 in October 1864 during a trip to the Pyrenees and Auvergne. The work is dedicated to Alfred Lamarche, a family friend who cared for Saint-Saëns’s mother during the composer’s absences. The trio is scored for piano, violin, and violoncello and was published in Paris by Jacques Maho in November 1867. The première of the Piano Trio No. 1 took place on 20 January 1865 at Salle Pleyel, featuring Saint-Saëns and Pablo de Sarasate. Saint-Saëns himself performed the trio on various occasions, including concerts in St. Petersburg (1876), London (1876), Antwerp (1878), Edinburgh (1904), and Athens (1920). In his correspondence, Saint-Saëns mentioned playing the trio with notable musicians such as Henryk Wieniawski, Jacques Thibaud, and Louis Hasselmans. He also expressed his satisfaction with the work, describing a performance in Edinburgh as “delightful”. The trio was transcribed for piano duet by A. Benfeld in 1885.

Piano Trio No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The work is unusually cast in five movements, and takes around 35 minutes to perform. The first and last movements are considerably longer than the middle three, creating an arch-like structure.

I. Allegro ma non-troppo#

The first movement is a lengthy movement in sonata form. It opens with a dark and ominous theme shared between the violin and cello, accompanied by widely spaced chords in the piano. The second subject presents a new lyrical contrasting theme. After a dramatic development section, the movement ends boldly with an unexpected plagal cadence in E minor.

Proserpine (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

After the Camille Saint-Saëns became intrigued by August Vacquerie’s play (Proserpine, written in 1838) and the Italian aspects of it, Saint-Saëns and Vacquerie agreed on composing Proserpine in the Italian style. A trip to Florence by Saint-Saëns inspired this setting and atmosphere of the opera.

Instrumentation and composition#

Along with vocal soloists and an SATB chorus, Proserpine features: an off-stage orchestra (flute, viola, violoncello, harp, organ, bell) and an on-stage orchestra (piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets (A/B♭), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (D/F/A/G), 2 cornets (A/B♭), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, bass drum, cymbals), harp, strings). Proserpine features no spoken dialogue. Saint-Saëns used leitmotifs, a compositional technique commonly associated with Wagner, whom he greatly admired.

Requiem (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Camille Saint-Saëns composed the Requiem in memory of his friend and patron, Albert Libon, who had died in 1877. Libon had been a director of the postal service in Paris. He was interested in music and left Saint-Saëns 100,000 francs in his will which enabled the composer to retire from his church post at La Madeleine in Paris and use his time for composition. The inheritance came with the stipulation that Saint-Saëns compose a requiem for the first anniversary of his benefactor’s death, which the composer fulfilled with gratitude. He retreated to a hotel in Bern and completed the work in eight days. He wrote to his publisher: “Fear not, this Requiem will be very short; I’m not just working hard, I’m working flat out!” He conducted the first performance on 22 May 1878 in the Mass commemorating the first anniversary of Libon’s death at Saint-Sulpice, Paris, with Charles-Marie Widor as the organist. It was first published the same year. In 2016, it was published in a critical edition by Carus-Verlag, in the version for orchestra as well as in a version for a smaller ensemble but retaining the characteristic sound.

Romance, Op. 37 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The piece was composed shortly after the Franco-Prussian War. After the Armistice of Versailles was signed on 28 January 1871, the Paris Commune assumed power in Paris on 18 March. Fearing for his safety, Saint-Saëns fled to exile in London. Under these extreme conditions, he wrote the Romance, an enchanting piece that seems to be musically undisturbed by the circumstances of composition. The piece was dedicated to , a then well-known flautist. Because of political upheaval in France, the work was premiered by de Vroye and Saint-Saëns in mid-1871 in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Samson and Delilah (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In the middle of the 19th century, a revival of interest in choral music swept France, and Saint-Saëns, an admirer of the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn, made plans to compose an oratorio on the subject of Samson and Delilah as suggested by Voltaire’s libretto Samson for Rameau. The composer began work on the theme in 1867, just two years after completing his first (and as then yet unperformed) opera, Le timbre d’argent. Saint-Saëns had approached Ferdinand Lemaire, the husband of one of his wife’s cousins, about writing a libretto for the oratorio but Lemaire convinced the composer that the story was better suited to an opera. Saint-Saëns later wrote: A young relative of mine had married a charming young man who wrote verse on the side. I realized that he was gifted and had in fact real talent. I asked him to work with me on an oratorio on a biblical subject. ‘An oratorio!’, he said, ’no, let’s make it an opera!’, and he began to dig through the Bible while I outlined the plan of the work, even sketching scenes, and leaving him only the versification to do. For some reason I began the music with act 2, and I played it at home to a select audience who could make nothing of it at all. In spite of many precedents, the French public reacted negatively to Saint-Saëns’s intention of putting a Biblical subject on the stage. The alarm on the part of the public caused him to abandon working further on the opera for the next two years. Upon returning to France in 1875, Saint-Saëns presented act 1 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet in a similar format as the 1870 performance of act 2. The work was harshly received by music critics and failed to gain the public’s interest. That year acclaimed mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, for whom Saint-Saëns wrote the role of Dalila, organized and performed in a private performance of act 2 at a friend’s home in Croissy, with the composer at the piano. Viardot was a great admirer of the work and she hoped that this private performance would encourage Halanzier, the director of the Paris Opéra who was in attendance, to mount a full production. Although Saint-Saëns completed the score in 1876, no opera houses in France displayed any desire to stage Samson et Dalila. Liszt’s sustained support however led to the work being mounted in Weimar in 1877.

Septet (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The septet is dedicated to Émile Lemoine, a mathematician who in 1861 founded the chamber music society La Trompette. Saint-Saëns and other well known musicians such as Louis Diémer, Martin Pierre Marsick, and Isidor Philipp would often perform at the concerts of the society, which took place at Salle Érard and later in the hall of the Horticultural Society. The complete septet was successfully premiered on 28 December 1880. The string quartet was doubled at the premiere – in Saint-Saëns’ opinion, it made a stronger impact that way. The work was first published in March 1881 with Durand.

Serenade in E-flat major (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Composition of the Serenade began in 1865, and was completed by May of that year with publication, dedicated to Princess Mathilde Bonaparte Demidoff who in 1860 had exempted Saint-Saëns from military service, following shortly afterwards. The first performance did not, however, take place until the following year, when it was performed at a soirée held by the Prince of Hohenzollern on 7 January 1866. On that occasion, the organ was played by the composer, while Julian Sauzay played the piano. The Serenade was performed twice more in 1866, the third performance being attended by composers Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod and Franz Liszt.

Suite algérienne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns (2 natural, 2 valved), 2 trumpets (valved), 2 cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, cymbals, bass drum and strings. The work is written in four movements. Each of the movements has a program.

Recordings#

Saint-Saëns recorded movements 3 & 4 in a piano arrangement.
Released on Naxos 8.112054.

LPs#

(1950s) Orchestre national de la radiodiffusion française, Louis Fourestier. — Pathé 33 DTZX 126 Artistique.
(rel. 1956) L’Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, Jean Fournet. — Philips N 00703 R (Minigroove).
(rel. 2004) CD reissue: EMI Classics 585210.
(rel. 1976) Frankenland State Symphony Orchestra, George Barati. — Lyrichord LLST 7103.
(rel. 1991) Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimír Válek - Supraphon 11 0971-1 031.

CDs#

(rel. 1988) London Symphony Orchestra, Yondani Butt. — ASV Records CDDCA599.
(rel. 1990) Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimír Válek. — Supraphon 11 0971-2.
(rel. 1994) Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, David Robertson. — Valois Records 4688.
(rec. 1999, rel. 2000) Swiss Italian Orchestra, Francis Travis. — Chandos Records CHAN 9837.
(rel. 2007) Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Marco Guidarini. — Talent Records 106.

For piano 4-hands by Gabriel Faure#

*(rec. 2004, rel. 2005) Tomas Daukantas and Vilija Poskute. — Ars Produktion 38008.

Suite for Cello and Piano (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The piece is written in the form of a suite with five movements: The end of the finale contains a recapitulation of the prelude, typical of a serenade. In fact, the work bears a close resemblance to Antonín Dvořák’s String Serenade.

Orchestrated version#

Saint-Saëns’ interest in this piece was revived in 1919. Cellist Joseph Hollmann, for whom the Second Cello Concerto was written, encouraged Saint-Saëns to orchestrate this suite of five pieces. However, the composer felt that the Scherzo and Finale were too pianistic to be orchestrated, and eventually came to a decision to replace the two movements with a Gavotte and a Tarantelle, respectively. The Gavotte, originally written in G minor, was transposed into D minor upon orchestration. The Romance already existed in orchestrated form because the composer once took the movement from the original suite and transcribed it for horn, for Henri Chaussier, though he modified it once again with different orchestration for the suite. The orchestrated version was published by J. Hamelle in 1920.

Symphony in A major (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Saint-Saëns wrote the symphony in 1850 at the age of 15; it is therefore one of his early works. With it, Saint-Saëns turned to absolute music, which, however, was not highly regarded in France at the time. The work contains obvious influences from the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Today, the work is rarely performed. Of his five symphonies, only the Third (‘Organ’) Symphony is performed relatively often.

Symphony in F major (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The work was originally submitted under the title of “Urbs Roma” (the city of Rome) for a competition in Bordeaux. The competition, which Saint-Saëns won, was intended as a starting point for young composers. The composer did not leave a program or other description that indicates how the music related to its title. The work was buried by Saint-Saëns, who never published it during his lifetime and left it out of his own catalogue. This resulted in the work never receiving an opus number. The theme of the slow third movement was reused in the composer’s L’Assassinat du duc de Guise.

Symphony No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The work was composed by an 18-year-old Saint-Saëns who initially published it anonymously. The work’s scoring for a large orchestra led the premier conductor, François Seghers, to incorrectly speculate that its composer was German. At the work’s first rehearsal, Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod were heard commenting about the composition without realizing that the work’s teenage composer sat only feet away. Several composers have been cited as possible influences on Saint-Saëns. The first movement shows the influence of Schumann, although the development departs from his usual model. The second movement is a march that resembles those of Bizet. The large-scale orchestration is said to resemble that of Beethoven, Berlioz, and Gounod.

Symphony No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Saint-Saëns wrote a total of five symphonies, three of which are numbered: the ‘first’ (actually his second), this one (which is actually his fourth), and his famous ’third’ (actually his fifth), known as the “Organ Symphony.” In addition to these, he composed a Symphony in A major at the age of 15, as well as one in F major entitled Urbs Roma (“City of Rome”) in 1857. Saint-Saëns composed this symphony at the age of 24. He would not return to the symphony as a musical form until 27 years later, with his Organ Symphony. Dedicated to the violinist, pianist, and conductor Jules Pasdeloup, it was premiered on 25 March 1860 in the Salle Pleyel, Paris.

Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

On July 4, 1885 the directors of the Philharmonic Society agreed to commission a new, specifically French orchestral work, preferring Charles Gounod, with Léo Delibes, Jules Massenet, and Saint-Saëns as backup candidates. While the fate of petitions to these other composers remains unclear (if indeed they were ever despatched), the following year the Society arranged to bring Saint-Saëns to London as piano soloist in a concerto of his choice (Beethoven’s fourth concerto), and he requested that his little-performed A-minor second symphony also be programmed. The society responded by requesting “some symphonic work expressly for next season”, to which Saint-Saëns expeditiously agreed, responding in a letter dated August 25, 1885 “without making a formal commitment, I can promise you that I will make every effort to respond to your wish, and to write a new symphony for the sake of the Philharmonic Society.” Based on correspondence between Saint-Saëns and both his publisher Durand and the Philharmonic Society’s honorary secretary, Francesco Berger, composition of the new symphony was concentrated in the first months of 1886. The autograph score indicates that it was finished by April of that year. Saint-Saëns’ decision to compose an actual symphony in response to the Philharmonic Society’s request was unusual. First, almost thirty years had passed since the forty-nine year old composer had last written a symphony (in 1859), and his reputation as a concert composer derived principally from his piano concertos and symphonic poems. Second, the Society’s interest in an orchestral or symphonic work by a French composer would have generally precluded an actual symphony since, as a genre, it had been largely ignored by French composers. While symphonies were regularly performed in Parisian concert halls, appearing in more than half of the “Grands concerts” series that were comprised by the orchestral societies of Jules Pasdeloup, Édouard Colonne, and Charles Lamoureux, almost all were by Austro-German and Nordic composers, especially those of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. French symphonic composers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, such as Gossec, Leduc, or Méhul, were virtually unknown by the later nineteenth century. Symphonic efforts by later French composers, including those by Gounod and the early symphonies by Saint-Saëns himself, were very rarely performed, while the youthful symphony of Bizet would remain unknown until 1933. Rare exceptions, such as the 1869 premiere of Bizet’s Roma Symphony by Pasdeloup at his Concerts populaires series, were not warmly received by Parisian concertgoers. Both Jann Pasler and Andrew Deruchie view Saint-Saëns choice to compose a symphony as “a direct response to … Wagnerism in France”. In the period prior to his writing the symphony, Saint-Saëns had warned French composers against adopting Wagnerian techniques and ideas, not for their lack of merit or aesthetic value, but instead for their fundamental incompatibility with the French character and French sensibilities, exhorting: “young musicians, if you wish to be something, remain French!” In 1871, Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine had founded the Société nationale de musique specifically to showcase French music by organising both orchestral and chamber music concerts featuring French composers. By 1885, however, Saint-Saëns found himself increasingly marginalised within the Société Nationale. Vincent d’Indy and Henri Duparc, both disciples of the Belgian composer, César Franck, and enthusiastic proponents of Wagnerism, took control and opened the Société Nationale’s programming to non-French, and especially German music. In Saint-Saëns’ view, they were a “Caesarean i.e. César Franck and Wagnerian coterie” who had turned the Société Nationale into a “closed salon, unrelated to the intentions of its founders”. It has therefore been suggested that, for Saint-Saëns, the symphony, in its form, represented “an appropriate vehicle for a musical response” to growing Wagnerism in France “by pursuing … the very genre that, according to Wagner and at least some of his French advocates, had mandated the music drama after exhausting itself with Beethoven”. and that the symphony was an opportunity “to deliver a classical response to the concerns of Wagner and French Wagnerians”. Saint-Saëns himself did not ascribe a motivation to his decision to pen a symphony, beyond the interest in the genre that might be inferred from his request to have his earlier A-minor symphony programmed.

The Assassination of the Duke of Guise

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

Lasting longer than was usual in its time, about 15 minutes, the film more or less accurately depicts the events of the day in 1588 when King Henry III (played by co-director le Bargy) summoned his powerful rival, Duke Henri de Guise, to his chambers at the Château de Blois and had him brutally murdered. The film has its share of lurid thrills and better acting than most films of the time. It is staged in a somewhat theatrical manner but has slow pacing throughout.

The Carnival of the Animals

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

After a disastrous concert tour of Germany in 1885–86, Saint-Saëns withdrew to a small Austrian village, where he composed The Carnival of the Animals in February 1886. From the beginning, he regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was “such fun” (). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the École Niedermeyer de Paris, Saint-Saëns specified in his will that the work should be published posthumously. He died in December 1921, and Durand published it in Paris in April 1922; the first public performance was given on 25 February 1922 by the Concerts Colonne, conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It was rapturously received. Le Figaro reported: Its first American performance was by the New York Symphony on 24 October 1922 at the President’s Theater in Washington, DC. Walter Damrosch conducted, and later that month he led additional performances by the Symphony in Philadelphia (26 October) and New York (29 October). The Carnival of the Animals has since become one of Saint-Saëns’s best-known works, in the original version for 11 instruments, or more often with the full string section of an orchestra. Frequently, a glockenspiel substitutes for the rare glass harmonica.

The Dying Swan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Legacy#

Some ballerinas, including Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet and Nina Ananiashvili, formerly of American Ballet Theatre and The Bolshoi Ballet, have used Dying Swan arms in Swan Lake when making Odette’s exit at the end of Act II (the first lakeside scene). In response to impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, Carlos Acosta, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, adapted Fokine’s choreography with the ballerina raising her head at the end instead, and with Céline Gittens, principal dancer of the company, and the musicians performing in their respective homes. Misty Copeland, principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, invited 31 other dancers to dance The Swan to raise fund for the relief fund of the participating dancers’ companies and other related funds.

The Promised Land (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Violin Concerto No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for solo violin, 2 flutes/piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Structure#

The work is in only a single movement, labeled allegro. The piece has a performance time of approximately 12 minutes, garnering criticism for its short length. Critics called the work a ‘concert piece’ because it is barely longer than other works of that label, much to the annoyance of Saint-Saëns himself.

Violin Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The work is scored for solo violin, 2 flutes/piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. The work is in three movements: A performance of the whole piece takes around 28 minutes.

Selected recordings#

Zino Francescati, violin, The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Recorded 1950. CD Sony 1996
Arthur Grumiaux, violin, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, conductor Jean Fournet. LP Philips 1957
Nathan Milstein, violin, The Philharmonia Orchestra, dir. Anatole Fistoulari. LP Columbia Emi 1962
Arthur Grumiaux, violin, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, conductor Manuel Rosenthal. Recorded 1963. CD Classic best 1200, 2016
Henrik Szeryng, violin, Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte Carlo, conductor Édouard Van Remoortel. Recorded 10/1969. CD Philips 1988
Zino Francescatti, violin, New York Philharmonic, conductor Pierre Boulez. CD Lyrinx ( live recording 16/12/1975)
Pierre Amoyal, violin, New Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Vernon Handley. CD Erato 1977
Ulf Hoelscher, violin, Complete Violin Concertos (n°1, n°2, n°3), , New Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Pierre Dervaux. Recorded 1977 for EMI. Reissued by Brilliant Classics 2012
Joshua Bell, violin, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conductor Charles Dutoit. CD Decca 1989
Isaac Stern, violin, Orchestre de Paris, conductor Daniel Barenboim. CD Sony 1995
Pierre Amoyal, violin, Orchestre National de France, conductor Charles Dutoit. CD Decca 1995
Chee-Yun, violin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Jesús López-Cobos. CD Denon 1997
Stefan Tönz, violin, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conductor Sir Neville Mariner. CD Novalis 1998
Philippe Graffin, violin, Complete Violin Concertos (n°1, n°2, n°3),, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Martyn Brabbins. CD Hyperion 1998
Itzhak Perlman, violin, Orchestre de Paris, conductor, Daniel Barenboim. CD DG 2006
Fanny Clamagirand, violin, Complete Violin Concertos (n°1, n°2, n°3), Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskilä, conductor Patrick Gallois. CD Naxos 2009
Renaud Capuçon, violin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conductor Lionel Bringuier. CD Erato 2013
Andrew Wan, violin, Complete Violin Concertos (n°1, n°2, n°3), Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conductor Kent Nagano. CD Analekta 2015

Violin Sonata No. 1 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The violin sonata was a form Saint-Saëns was familiar with: he had completed a Violin Sonata in B major in 1842 – when he was just six years old – and abandoned another Violin Sonata in F major dating from around 1850–1851 after the second movement. These juvenile works remained unpublished until 2021. In August 1885, Saint-Saëns wrote to his publisher Durand that he intended to compose a “grand duo for piano and violin” in time for a planned tour of England. By 13 October, the sonata was completed, and he received a considerable fee of 1,200 francs. It was premiered four days later in Huddersfield by the composer and Otto Peiniger and repeated in Leeds and London. The work was dedicated to Martin Pierre Marsick, a violinist and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, to commemorate their tour of Switzerland. The first performance in Paris was given by Saint-Saëns and Marsick on 9 January 1886 at the chamber music society La Trompette, which Saint-Saëns frequented.

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The sonata was composed in Egypt from 17 February to 15 March 1896. It was dedicated to Léon-Alexandre Carembat, who won first prize for violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1883 and played for the Orchestre de l’Opéra, and his wife Marie-Louise Adolphi, who won first prize for piano at the Conservatoire in 1883. The couple had given several concerts with Saint-Saëns’ works. The first performance before the official premiere was given by Eugène Ysaÿe and Raoul Pugno on 18 May 1896. The premiere itself, as part of Saint-Saëns’ 50th anniversary concert on 2 June 1896 at Salle Pleyel, was given by Pablo de Sarasate and Saint-Saëns for the benefit of the Association des artistes musiciens.