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Composer
Bios
Albeniz
Albinoni
Allegri
Arnold
Bach, J S
Barber
Bartok
Beethoven
Berlioz
Bizet
Brahms
Britten
Bruch
Bruckner
Chopin
Copland
Debussy
Delius
Dvorak
Elgar
Gershwin
Gibbons
Grieg
Handel
Haydn
Holst
Janacek
Liszt
Mahler
Mendelssohn
Messiaen
Monteverdi
Mozart
Offenbach
Part
Poulenc
Prokofiev
Puccini
Purcell
Rachmaninov
Ravel
Rossini
Saint-Saens
Scarlatti
Schubert
Schumann
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Strauss, Johann
Strauss, Richard
Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan_Williams
Verdi
Vivaldi
Wagner
Walton |
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Showing
extraordinary precocity as both a pianist and composer, Saint-Saens had childhood lessons with Stamaty and Boely before entering the Conservatoire
in 1848, where Halevy was his teacher. His dazzling gifts won him the admiration of Gounod, Rossini, Berlioz and especially Liszt, who hailed him as the world's greatest organist. He was organist at the
Madeleine 1857-75, and a teacher at the Ecole Niedermeyer 1861-5, where Faure was among his devoted pupils.
With only these professional appointments, he pursued a range of other activities, organizing concerts of Liszt's symphonic poems (then a novelty), reviving interest in older music (notably of Bach, Handel and Rameau), writing on musical, scientific and historical topics, travelling often and widely (in Europe, North Africa and South America) and composing
prolifically. On behalf of new French music he co-founded the Societe Nationale de Musique
in 1871.
A virtuoso pianist, he excelled in Mozart and was praised for the purity and grace of his playing. Similarly French characteristics of his conservative musical style - neat proportions, clarity, polished expression, elegant line - reside in his best compositions, the classically orientated sonatas (especially the first each for violin and cello), chamber music (Piano Quartet op.41), symphonies (no.3, the 'Organ' Symphony, 1886) and concertos (no.4 for piano, no.3 for violin).
He also wrote 'exotic', descriptive or dramatic works, including four symphonic poems, in a style influenced by Liszt, using thematic transformation, and 13 operas, of which only Samson et Dalila (1877), with its sound structures, clear declamation and strongly appealing scenes, has held the stage. Le carnaval des animaux (1886) is a witty frolic; he forbade performances in his lifetime, 'Le cygne' apart. From the mid-1890s he adopted a more austere style, emphasizing the classical aspect of his aesthetic which, perhaps more than the music itself, influenced
Faure and Ravel. |
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