Saint-Saëns

Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2: Dmitry Shishkin with Mischa Damev and the Mariinsky Orchestra

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After hearing the premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, the pianist and composer Sigmond Stojowski remarked that it “began with Bach and ended with Offenbach.” In a previous post, we explored this brilliant and exhilarating work, which shakes up the traditional concerto form with a slow and solemn first movement, a bright scherzo for the second movement, and a concluding presto. Now, let’s listen to this emotionally …

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Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals”: The Kanneh-Masons and Friends

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In February of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns set aside work on his Third Symphony to write The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns considered it an act of compositional frivolity for a purely private audience. He prohibited public performances of the work during his lifetime out of fear that  it would damage his reputation as a serious composer. The Carnival of the Animals is full of parodies and inside jokes. A quote of Offenbach’s famous …

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Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp: Sunny and Exotic

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Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 is filled with charm, virtuosity, and dreamy exoticism. The 72-year-old Saint-Saëns was vacationing in the city of Bridger in the Italian Riviera when, in 1907, he composed this sparkling miniature. He dedicated the work to a musical duo made up of two sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. Set in a single brief movement and bathed in Italian sunshine, the music …

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Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto: A Continuous, Cyclic Drama

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From its opening bars, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 defies convention. We are denied the expansive orchestral introduction which traditionally sets the stage for the entrance of the soloist. Instead, the Concerto is launched into motion with a single A minor chord which lands as a vigorous, attention-grabbing punch. The solo cello enters immediately and sweeps us forward, breathlessly, with the rhapsodic and tempestuous main theme. …

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Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals”: A Zoological Romp

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In February of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns set aside work on his Third Symphony to engage in a brief burst of compositional frivolity. He admitted to his publishers that it was “such fun” he could not resist. The piece in question was The Carnival of the Animals, a humorous musical suite made up of fourteen short, parody-filled movements. Each movement depicts a specific animal and has inspired numerous texts, which include poetry written by …

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Saint-Saëns’ Second Symphony: Adventures in Form

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Camille Saint-Saëns was 24 years old when, during the summer of 1859, he composed Symphony No. 2 in A minor. It is a work which is both youthful and convention-defying. Intimate and compact, this music is far removed from the monumental grandeur of the “Organ Symphony,” which Saint-Saëns wrote some thirty years later. It bends symphonic form in surprising and adventurous ways. The first movement (Allegro marcato – Allegro appassionato) begins with …

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Saint-Saëns’ First Violin Sonata: The Hippogriff Takes Flight

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Turbulent, expansive, heroic, and boldly virtuosic, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor seems to take flight, like a mythical creature. Completed in 1885, the Sonata is set in four movements which are grouped in two sections. The first two and the last two movements flow together, attacca, with the only break coming in the middle of the work. This sets up the same kind of continuous musical journey we …

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