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Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921) Background Camille Saint-Saens was born in Paris in 1835, the son of a clerk in the French government service who died shortly after his birth. He began learning the piano at two and a half and displayed remarkable precocity, memorizing all the Beethoven piano sonatas by age 10. His great friend Hector Berlioz remarked: 'He knows everything, but lacks inexperience.' The young revolutionary Saint-Saens entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1848, studying organ with Benoist and composition with Halevy. In his early years, he was a radical who passionately advocated the music of Wagner and Schumann at a time when it was unfashionable to do so. He also revived interest in music by earlier composers such as Handel, Bach, and Gluck. He was hailed by Hector Berlioz as one of the great hopes of French music, and also gained a reputation as a piano and organ virtuoso. In 1852, he became friends with Liszt, who had a profound effect on his music. The years 1852 and 1855 saw the composition of his first two symphonies. In 1861, he became a piano professor at Ecole Niedermeyer for four years, his pupils including Faure and Messager. His famous Second Piano Concerto was written in just 17 days in 1868. |
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The middle years In 1871, he was a founding member of the Societe Nationale de Musique, an organisation dedicated to propagating French music. He married 19-year-old Marie-Laure Truffot in 1875, a disastrous union which ended abruptly six years later after the death of their two infant sons. The year 1877 saw the composition of Samson and Delila, his most famous opera. Liszt organised the premiere in Weimar, after Paris theatres rejected the work because of its biblical subject. In his later life, he spent much of his time travelling through Europe, Russia, and the USA. His greatest symphony, No. 3 in C minor (the Organ symphony), was premiered in London in 1886. Grumpy old reactionary? His views on musical politics underwent a sea-change in his old age. In the First World War, he bitterly attacked his former idol Wagner, and called for a ban on all German music. He also fiercely criticised Claude Debussy, mercilessly deriding his innovative Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun: 'I'd soon lose my voice, if I went round witlessly bawling like a faun celebrating his afternoon'. He wrote that the artist 'who does not feel entirely satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colours or a fine series of chords, does not understand art'. But by this time, his conservatism was going out of fashion in France, which was more interested in the impressionistic style of Debussy and Ravel, and the novelties of Les Six. He died in 1921 in Algiers. In his music, Saint-Saens placed elegance, style, and wit above all other qualities, believing that excessive emotional expression was distasteful. He was a master of orchestration, and although his music may not contain the motivic or harmonic interest of Faure or Franck, there is always distinctive melodic invention and a strong overall sense of proportion and refinement. Despite his conservatism, he managed to introduce many formal innovations, particularly in the piano concertos, and with his Third Symphony he devised a superbly crafted orchestral showpiece that combines emotional depth with his characteristic wit and charm. Back to top of page |
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