Camille SAINT-SAËNS

573476 iTunes S-S.qxp_573476 iTunes S-S 09/03/2018 11:57 Page 1 SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 Allegro appassionato Romain Descharmes, Piano Malmö Symphony Orchestra Marc Soustrot 573476 iTunes S-S.qxp_573476 iTunes S-S 09/03/2018 11:57 Page 2 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) The second movement is undoubtedly the most movement was borrowed from Fauré, one of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concertos • 1 forward-looking, with the orchestra pared down to include pupils, who had decided against using it in an early just strings, clarinet and bassoon. The melancholic setting of the Tantum ergo . If musicians were to be judged purely on the merits of their four decades. While they may lack the rigorous formal opening theme is given to the piano, supported by funereal The impishness of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer formative years, Camille Saint-Saëns would have little to development heard in, for example, the piano concertos of crotchets in the double basses with pizzicato violins. What Night’s Dream imbues the middle-movement Allegro fear. Born in Paris in 1835, he is one of the most Brahms (born just two years earlier), they nevertheless follows is a fascinating, improvisatory mini-cadenza for scherzando – one can almost see the mischievous Puck extraordinary musical prodigies in the history of Western represent an important phase in the evolution of the French solo piano – the first of several – notated without bar-lines bouncing off the piano keys – and this initial, elfin theme is music. As a highly gifted pianist he made his concert début piano concerto. His prodigious gifts as a pianist are clearly and centred around a phrase alternating between triplets followed by a brief but noble second theme, introduced by at the age of ten, at which he famously announced to the evident in the often-florid piano writing, though Saint-Saëns and pairs of semiquavers. The full body of strings enters, the cellos. Both themes compete for attention throughout audience afterwards that he would happily perform any of eschewed virtuosity for its own sake, and in all five concertos softly playing arco , and the clarinet makes its first and are subjected to occasional modulations into minor Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas as an encore. Having piano and orchestra are treated very much as equals. appearance with a beautifully lyrical phrase, underlined by keys, though the dancing piano maintains the irrepressibly studied at the Paris Conservatoire, he followed a The first concerto was written in 1858, when the the bassoon – offering a brief glimpse of light in the light-hearted spirit of the movement. conventional path as a church organist, first at Saint-Merri, composer was still in his early twenties. While this is by no darkness. But this is short-lived, and the pathos of the Hot on the heels of the scherzo comes the finale, a Paris, and later at La Madeleine (the official church of means the most popular of the piano concertos (that opening theme returns, casting its shadow once again. bustling tarantella (a rapid, wild dance with fast triplets) the French Empire), where he remained for some two accolade is reserved for the second of the five), its The exquisite gloom of the central movement is which demands almost constant virtuosic bravura from decades and was praised for his improvisatory prowess. importance should not be underestimated. When we think swept aside as we enter the finale, which from the outset the soloist. Written in sonata form, the first subject He was much in demand throughout Europe and the about French piano concertos, it is not difficult to bring to reveals Saint-Saëns’ penchant for novelty and includes a pair of descending, chromatic phrases in the Americas, where he enjoyed a successful career as a mind famous examples, such as the keyboard concertos playfulness, anticipating the style of his younger horns resembling o6ne of the composer’s famous works: pianist and composer, though the perception of Saint- of Poulenc, or Ravel’s pair of piano concertos, but looking contemporary and compatriot, Poulenc. After the Danse macabre ( , 0:41), whereas the development Saëns the composer changed throughout his lifetime, back beyond the twentieth century, instances of piano excitable first subject of this sonata-form finale comes the section is dominated by a trill-obsessed figure from the which coincided with a period of revolutionary changes in concertos germinating on French soil become increasingly slightly calmer second subject – the sensible, older sibling second subject, heard in the piano while the woodwind the arts. During his youth, he championed such progressive sparse. Indeed, Saint-Saëns ’ Piano Concerto No. 1 is the trying to control the capricious first subject, without much intone a chorale-like melody (another Bachian reference). figures as Wagner and Liszt, yet in his later years he first piano concerto by a major French composer. 2 success. As the movement approaches its final bars, the The coda maintains the relentless, repeated triplets, and revealed a much more conservative approach (both in his Antiphonal, ascending arpeggio horn calls announce exultant motto theme of the first movement returns, despite the faster tempo the concerto concludes in much music and in several essays) – an approach rooted in the start of the piece, before the piano enters with a series bringing a cyclic quality to the conclusion of this early the same way as it began, with a profound sense of tradition and reactionary to the innovative developments of imitative arpeggiated figures. The horns return, joined venture into the piano concerto genre. seriousness. that Debussy, Stravinsky and others were bringing to the by the woodwind and finally the strings, who establish this A decade separates Saint-Saëns’ First Piano Saint-Saëns’ Allegro appassionato, Op. 70 – not to French music scene in the early twentieth century. 1 His as the concerto’s main motto, which recurs throughout the Concerto from his Second . Composed in 1868, this is by be confused with the more famous, eponymous written comments in particular caused him to fall out of movement. This is succeeded by the first statement of a far the most popular and frequently performed of the five showpiece for cello and orchestra, with which it shares no fashion towards the end of his life, though the sheer second recurring theme: a simple, descending sequence (though the Fifth ‘Egyptian ’ also enjoys regular outings). common material – was composed in 1884 and is best optimism and attractiveness of his music ensured his in the violins, decorated by delicate triplets in the piano, One of several original features in the Second is the known today in its version for solo piano. It begins with a immortality in the canon of French romantic composers. which then takes over the theme from the violins – unorthodox tempo progression of its traditional, three- bold, three note motif, F#-G#-B#, denying the listener a Saint-Saëns’ five piano concertos vary significantly in sounding somewhat Rachmaninov-esque as it does so. movement structure: not the expected fast – slow – fast, clear tonal centre, before finally establishing the key of character, which is unsurprising given that they span almost Next comes a scherzo -like interplay between the strings but slow – fast – fast, or more precisely, Andante C#. This motif dominates the entire piece, which sounds (on the beat) and piano (off the beat), broken by the return sostenuto – Allegro scherzando – Presto . Several decidedly Lisztian, not only in its virtuosic piano writing of the motto in the horns and followed once again by the composer-homages are to be found in the first movement: and moments of tonal ambiguity, but also in its use of a 1 It should be noted that although Saint-Saëns ventured into second theme heard earlier in the violins. These two main at the beginning, the serious extended solo passage recurring motif and its orchestration – all of which bear neoclassicism – a term very much associated with Stravinsky – these were stylistically very different from Stravinsky’s treatment of ideas continue to dominate the remainder of the (which originated from one of his improvisations at the resemblances to the Hungarian composer’s work, not neoclassicism, which often laced baroque and classical forms with movement, right through to its jubilant conclusion. organ – hence the tonic pedal notes) clearly pays tribute least his Faust Symphony (1857) and his Piano Sonata in modern harmonies. Saint-Saëns’ forays into this style pre-date those to Bach; the orchestral entry that follows (almost certainly B minor (1853). of Stravinsky, and were born out of a love of 17th-century French unintentionally) recalls the dramatic opening chords of 2 dance forms, as well as his preparation of new editions of the works Earlier models do exist by more obscure figures, such as François - Mozart’s Don Giovanni ; while the main theme of this Dominic Wells of baroque composers including Rameau and Lully. Adrien Boieldieu, whose piano concerto dates from 1792. 573476 iTunes S-S.qxp_573476 iTunes S-S 09/03/2018 11:57 Page 4 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) manière qui rappelle un peu Rachmaninov. Vient ensuite insolite des tempos de sa structure en trois mouvements Concertos pour piano • 1 un échange apparenté à un scherzo entre les cordes (sur traditionnelle : non pas l’alternance rapide-lent-rapide les temps) et le piano (à contretemps), interrompu par le attendue, mais un schéma lent-rapide-rapide, ou plus Si l’on devait juger les musiciens uniquement sur les mérites Le caractère des concertos pour piano de Saint- retour du thème des cors et suivi par le second thème précisément, Andante sostenuto-Allegro scherzando- de leurs années de formation, Camille Saint-Saëns n’aurait Saëns varie de manière significative, ce qui n’a rien entendu précédemment aux violons.

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