Camille Saint-Saëns
Child Prodigy and Polymath
Born in Paris in 1835 on the 9th October 1835, Camille Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy, rivalling Mozart with his extraordinary early development. One authority states that he could read and write aged two, was composing just after his third birthday, and gave his first piano recital aged five! He had childhood lessons with Stamaty and Boëly before entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1848, where Halévy was his teacher. He gave his first formal performance as a concert pianist aged ten, and it is said that, when asked for an encore, he offered to play any of Beethoven's thirty-two sonatas from memory. With such amazing musical gifts he attracted much attention from the musical fraternity, taking lessons from the top musicians of his time and winning the admiration of contemporary composers such as Gounod, Rossini and Berlioz. Liszt hailed him as the world's greatest organist. He was organist at the Madeleine from 1857 to 1875, and a teacher at the Ecole Niedermeyer, from 1861 to 1865, where Fauré was among his devoted pupils.
A virtuoso pianist, he was much praised for the purity and grace of his playing, and he excelled in his interpretation of Mozart.
Saint-Saëns interests were much wider than music, for he studied and wrote on scientific and historical topics and travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa and South America. One of his lifelong passions was lepidoptery.
He died in Algiers on the 16th December 1921.
Champion and Fierce Critic.
Saint-Saëns has been referred to as the "French Mendelssohn" and like Mendelssohn he was a champion and reviver of the work of earlier composers, particularly Bach, Handel, Rameau, Mozart and Wagner. He organised concerts of Liszt's symphonic poems, a style of composition which was still a novelty in his time. However, in late middle age Saint-Saëns became an arch traditionalist, vehemently opposing the progressive styles of contemporary composers such as Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky.
His Works
Saint-Saëns wrote in the classical French tradition. His compositional style is elegant and precise in detail and form and it combines the lyrical style common to 19th Century French music with a more formal quality. In his later years he wrote "I ran after the chimera of purity of style and perfection of form."
By his own account Saint-Saëns found the process of composing music effortless and some authorities argue that this accounts for a lack originality in some of his work, one critic using the term "doggedly formulaic" to describe his chamber music. It is certainly true that relatively little of his prolific output has stood the test of time. Nevertheless, a portion of his work is much loved today. It is ironic that he forbade full performances performance of his witty frolic, 'Le carnaval des animaux' (1886), a work which is very popular and famous today. (Perhaps he should have let his hair down a bit more!) His opera 'Samson' et Dalila' (1877) was not performed for thirteen years after it was written, because its Biblical subject was not thought appropriate for the theatre, and yet this is the only one of his thirteen operas to remain popular today.
Despite his resistance to musical innovation by contemporary composers, Saint-Saëns was himself an innovator in the style of the symphonic poem, a descriptive or dramatic work, in which he was inspired by the works of Liszt. He wrote four symphonic poems; 'Le rouet d'Omphale', 'Phaëton', 'The Youth of Hercules' and 'Danse macabre'. His Third Symphony in E-flat Minor (1886) has had some popularity, helped no doubt by the scoring which includes an organ and four hand piano.