Cello and Piano No.1 in C Minor Op.32 5 I
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CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 1835–1921 Sonata for violin and piano No.1 in D minor Op.75 1 I. Allegro agitato – 6.43 2 Adagio 5.47 3 II. Allegro moderato – 3.58 4 Allegro molto 6.11 Sonata for cello and piano No.1 in C minor Op.32 5 I. Allegro 9.06 6 II. Andante tranquillo sostenuto 5.22 7 III. Allegro moderato 6.35 Trio for violin, cello and piano No.2 in E Minor Op.92 8 I. Allegro non troppo 10.26 9 II. Allegretto 6.08 10 III. Andante con moto 3.55 11 IV. Grazioso, poco allegro 4.21 12 V. Allegro 7.15 Total Time: 75.51 RENAUD CAPUÇON violin (1–4, 8–12) EDGAR MOREAU cello (5–12) BERTRAND CHAMAYOU piano CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Camille Saint-Saëns wrote reams of beautiful music in virtually every genre. His chamber music, which contains hardly a dull page, includes two splendid string quartets, two piano trios, a septet with piano and trumpet, and various sonatas and pieces for wind or string instruments and piano. But only the witty Carnival of the Animals holds its place in the central repertoire, usually in an inflated version with orchestra. The masterworks in this programme all feature the piano, which Saint-Saëns played brilliantly, having first shown promiset a two and a half. The Cello Sonata in C minor, the first of his published sonatas for a string instrument, dates from 1872, an annus horribilis for the composer: it began with the death of his great-aunt Charlotte Masson who, with his mother Clémence, had brought him up and given him his grounding in music after the early death of his father. Prompted by his o wish t write something for the new Société Nationale de Musique, in which he played a leading role, the work incorporates passages of improvisation, which came to Saint-Saëns while playing the organ at Saint Augustine’s Church – the slow movement is based on one. 4 Not surprisingly under the circumstances, the Sonata stresses the lower registers of the piano and especially the cello, which sounds almost grumpy at times in the 3/4 Allegro, in sonata form. We hear first a call to attention from both instruments: the initial theme is dramatic, the second in D flat is lyrical, and the mood throughout verges on the furious. The E flat Andante tranquillo sostenuto in 4/4 is gentler, less sure of, itself starting with a chorale intoned against a staccato accompaniment: the cello has lovely phrases and really flowers in the central passage, which gets more intense before the chorale returns. In this movement even the cello’s low register sounds more optimistic. It would be interesting to know what the original finale was like. The Sonata was tried out at a soirée given by Saint-Saëns’s mother and, getting up from the piano, the composer wondered why she was silent. According to Charles- Marie Widor, he asked: “Don’t you have anything to say? Aren’t you pleased?” Mme Saint-Saëns admitted that while she liked the first two movements, she did not care for the finale. Visibly miffed, her son went off and a few days later produced a4 2/ C minor Allegro moderato incorporating motifs from her favourite opera, Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. The piano is out of the blocks at once, the cello providing the singing interest during a headlong, virtuosic dash which briefly goes into C major in the recapitulation before the home key returns. The dedicatee of the Sonata was the cellist Jules-Bernard Lasserre. 5 The D minor Sonata for “Piano and Violin”, composed 13 years later, fascinated the writer Marcel Proust, who featured it in his unfinished novel Jean Santeuil.ts I i also the work behind the fictitious composer Vinteuil’s Sonata which comes into “Un amour de Swann”, part of À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time); and the theme haunting Swann is surely the memorable second subject of Saint-Saëns’s opening Allegro agitato, which returns in the finale just as Proust indicates. The first theme is very dramatic, oscillating between 6/8 and 9/8, and tremendous bravura must be summoned by the pianist throughout. The movement ends expectantly, going straight into the Et fla Adagio, which is in ternary form with a coda. The Allegretto moderato, in G minor, is a Scherzo with a delightfully lyrical Trio, the violin singing against the busy piano. Again we go straight into the sonata form Allegro molto, launched by fizzing playing from the violin, the piano also going at it hammer and tongs; the second theme is more cantabile; the “Vinteuil theme” returns, first in the latter part of the development and again in the recapitulation, and the Sonata ends with a frantic coda (Animato). The Sonata is dedicated to the Belgian violinist Martin-Pierre Marsick. “I am working quietly away at a Trio which I hope will drive to despair all those unlucky enougho t hear it,” Saint-Saëns wrote to Charles Lecocq from Geneva in June 1892. “I shall need the whole summer to perpetrate this atrocity; one must have a little fun somehow.” In truth the E minor Trio, begun in Algeria in March, was virtually finished. Its i a bigger, more complex work than the F major Trio of almost three decades earlier. Saint-Saëns prefigures the arch form so beloved of Hindemith and Bartók: his five movements comprise dramatic outer Allegros, a central Andante and second and fourth movements in medium tempo. In the last two movements, he uses material from an abandoned string quartet. 6 At the start of the Allegro non troppo in 12/8, the piano creates an air of expectancy with massive chords, the strings having the main melodic interest at first, and the piano part continues to be very demanding. The first theme is dramatic, the second in E major more yielding, and the galloping piano hurtles us into the forceful development: the tension does not let up, and the coda is quite excitable. The Allegretto, in 5/8, starts rather hesitantly in E major but alternates declamatory and easeful moods and major and minor keys, with filigree writing for the. piano The brief A flat major Andante con moto is introduced by the piano with a cantabile theme, marked “appassionato”, taken up by the cello and violin; there is a perfumed quality to this music, although it gets more intense, with a seven-note phrase dominating, and ends quietly and agitatedly. Good humour is restored by the G major Gracioso, poco allegro, which has the quality of a Scherzo, with an E major section standing in for a Trio. Saint-Saëns is at his most brilliant in the E minor Allegro, throwing in a fugal section which works up quite a storm, a slower section and a combination of the fugue subject with the first theme of the movement, before the emphatic ending to a most individual trio. Premiered at the Salle Érard on 7 December 1892 by Saint-Saëns’s pupil Isidore Philipp, Henri Berthelier and Jules Loeb, the E minor Trio was dedicated to another disciple, Anna Hoskier, Vicomtesse de Guitaut. Tully Potter 7 Camille Saint-Saëns écrivit pléthore de pages splendides dans pratiquement chaque genre existant. Ses pièces de chambre, dont l’intérêt ne faiblit pour ainsi dire jamais, comprennent deux magnifiques quatuors pour cordes, deux trios pour piano, un septuor avec piano et trompette, ainsi que différentes sonates et œuvres pour instruments à vent ou à cordes et piano. Pourtant, seul le spirituel Carnaval des animaux s’est maintenu au répertoire le plus joué, généralement dans une version étoffée pour tout un orchestre. Les chefs-d’œuvre du présent programme font tous appel au piano, dont Saint-Saëns jouait brillamment, ayant manifesté un talent prometteur dès l’âge de deux ans et demi. La Sonate pour violoncelle en ut ,mineur première de ses sonates pour un instrument à cordes ayant fait l’objet d’une publication, date de 1872, annus horribilis pour le compositeur : cette année néfaste commença par le décès de sa grand-tante Charlotte Masson qui, avec Clémence, sa mère, l’avait élevé et avait jeté les premières bases de sa formation musicale après la disparition prématurée de son père. Motivé par son désir de composer pour la Société Nationale de Musique nouvellement fondée, au sein de laquelle il jouait un rôle déterminant, Saint-Saëns incorpore dans cet ouvrage des passages d’improvisation dont l’inspiration lui vint alors qu’il jouait de l’orgue en l’église Saint-Augustin – le mouvement lentt es d’ailleurs fondé sur l’une de ces improvisations. 9 Compte tenu de ces circonstances, on ne s’étonnera pas que la Sonate insiste sur les registres graves du piano et surtout du violoncelle, qui parfois paraît presque bougon dans l’Allegro à 3/4, en forme-sonate. On entend d’abord un appel des deux instruments pour réclamer l’attention : le thème initial est saisissant, le second, en ré bémol, est lyrique, et tout le long du mouvement, la musique semble avoir du mal à réfréner une certaine fureur. L’Andante tranquillo sostenuto en mi bémol à 4/4 est plus doux, moins sûr de lui, ete début par un choral entonné sur un accompagnement staccato : le violoncelle joue des phrases ravissantes et fait véritablement éclosion dans le passage central, qui gagne en intensité avant le retour du choral. Dans ce mouvement, même le registre grave du violoncelle paraît plus optimiste. Il serait intéressant de savoir à quoi pouvait ressembler le finale original.