Notes for: August 4, 2021
Camille Saint-Saëns was a legend in 19th-century France. For many years he was considered the dean of French composers, admired by Berlioz and Liszt among many other fellow musicians. His music was wildly popular not just in France but in England and the United States too. He wrote in virtually every musical medium, composing hugely popular works such as the Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”), the symphonic poem “Dance macabre”, the opera “Samson et Delila”, and of course “Carnival of the Animals” (which he refused to have performed during his lifetime, worried that it would hurt his reputation). He was also a brilliant organist (Liszt called him “the greatest organist in the world”), and an influential teacher whom Fauré and Fauré’s pupil Ravel both revered. But music was not his only focus. He was a polymath whose interests included geology, botany, and astronomy, and who wrote academic articles on acoustics. He was one of the first composers to write a score for a motion picture (the 1908 film, “The Assassination of the Duke of Guise”) and one of the first to make a recording of his own work.
A classicist who loved Bach, Haydn, and Mozart and especially admired the restraint of French composers such as Rameau, he was a consummate craftsman whose works are consistently elegant, mellifluous, and richly sonorous. “He who does not feel wholly satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colors, and a fine series of chords does not understand art,” Saint-Saëns once said. His ardent and spirited Piano Quartet in B-Flat Major is a wonderful example of his approach and style.
The majestic first-movement Allegretto showcases Saint-Saëns’ skill in blending instrumental voices as he presents and develops two themes, the first built on “a fine series of chords,” the second a dreamy, lyrical melody. This movement is a warmup for the Andante maestoso ma con moto that follows, a grand fugal extravaganza that reflects Saint-Saëns’ affection for Bach. Offbeat, syncopated rhythms and playful dialogue drive the third-movement Poco allegro piu tosto moderato, a rambunctious, minor-key scherzo with hints of the macabre. Here, as in the first movement, Saint-Saëns ends with a pianissimo before launching the Quartet’s grand finale, a contrapuntally rich Allegro that brings back themes from the first and second movements in a joyful coda. It’s a colorful end to a technically impressive composition that is as deftly written as it is entertaining.
Notes for: August 1, 2023
Camille Saint-Saëns was a legend in 19th-century France. For many years he was considered the dean of French composers, admired by Berlioz and Liszt among many other fellow musicians. His music was wildly popular not just in France but in England and the United States too. He wrote in virtually every musical medium, composing hugely popular works such as the Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”), the symphonic poem Dance macabre, the opera Samson et Delila, and of course Carnival of the Animals (which he refused to have performed during his lifetime, worried that it would hurt his reputation). A prodigy who began studying the piano at three and was composing songs by the age of five, he was a brilliant organist (Liszt called him “the greatest organist in the world”), an admired pianist and conductor, and an influential teacher whom Fauré and Fauré’s pupil Ravel both revered. After the Franco-Prussian War he helped found the National Society of Music to promote the works of French composers. But music was not his only focus. He was a polymath whose interests included geology, botany, and astronomy, and who wrote academic articles on acoustics. He was one of the first composers to write a score for a motion picture (the 1908 film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise) and one of the first to make a recording of his own work.
A classicist who loved Bach, Haydn, and Mozart and especially admired the restraint of French composers such as Rameau, he was a consummate craftsman whose works are consistently elegant, mellifluous, and richly sonorous. “He who does not feel wholly satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colors, and a fine series of chords does not understand art,” Saint-Saëns once said. His ardent and spirited Piano Quartet in B-flat Major is a wonderful example of his approach and style.
The majestic first-movement Allegretto showcases Saint-Saëns’ skill in blending instrumental voices as he presents and develops two themes, the first built on “a fine series of chords,” the second a dreamy, lyrical melody. This movement is a warmup for the Andante maestoso ma con moto that follows, a grand fugal extravaganza that reflects Saint-Saëns’ affection for Bach. Offbeat, syncopated rhythms and playful dialogue drive the third-movement Poco allegro piu tosto moderato, a rambunctious, minor-key scherzo with hints of the macabre. Here, as in the first movement, Saint-Saëns ends with a pianissimo before launching the Quartet’s grand finale, a contrapuntally rich Allegro that brings back themes from the first and second movements in a joyful coda. It’s a colorful end to a technically impressive composition that is as deftly written as it is entertaining.