The Prolific Life of Camille Saint-Saens

Organist, pianist, astronomer, botanical, writer and even cartoonist.

Learn more about this French Composer who played a crucial role in the France Musical Renovation.

 

Camille Saint Saens, born in 1835, was a French composer, a polifacetic figure who also specialised in piano, organ, botanic, geology, astronomy, drawing, maths and even in writing poetry.

He played a crucial role in the renovation of french music and was one of the founders of the Societé Nationale de Musique, an organisation concerned with the diffusion of the new music of the moment.

He was born in 1835 in Rue du Jardinet, the Quartier Latin of Paris. His father, Victor Saint-Saens was a public servant who married Clémence Collin in 1834, but died of tuberculosis only three months after Camille was born. The doctors advised his mother to send Camille away to breathe the countryside air because it was very likely that her father had infected him with respiratory problems, a situation that was true since Camille experienced these medical complications all of his life. After two years in Corbeil with a nanny, Camille returned to Paris to live with his mother and his great aunt, Charlotte Masson, who had recently been widowed.

His great aunt started to teach him the piano at a young age and she discovered he had perfect pitch at age two, a very shocking fact. He started to play easy pieces of Haydn and Mozart and also began to compose himself. His first piece dates from March of 1839, when he was only 4 years and 7 months.

 

Camille Saint-Saëns – PIANIST, ORGANIST & COMPOSER

When he was 7 years old, in 1842, he started to take piano lessons with the pianist and pedagogue Camille Stamaty. In 1846, Stamaty got for him his first recital in Salle Pleyel, which was his public debut alongside violinist and orchestra director Théophile Tilmant. They played the Concerto in C minor of Beethoven and Piano Concerto N°15 KV 450 by Mozart, with a final cadenza of his own invention. Saint-Saens also offered, as a Bis to the audience, to play any of the thirty-two Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas by heart. After this tremendous performance, which was extensively covered by the journals of the time, Stamaty wanted for Camille a career as a young piano promise with him as his teacher and manager. But Saint-Saens mother, concerned about his delicate health and general education, refused to book more concerts for his son, a situation that grew apart from the pupil-teacher relationship.

As a pianist, he was admired by R. Wagner for his brilliant and accurate technical capabilities. However, despite excelling at the piano at a young age, he seemed to warm to the organ more; he studied the instrument at the Paris Conservatoire and worked from 1857 to 1877 as an organist in the église de la Madeleine, obtaining the most coveted and best-paid organist position in all of Paris (about 300 francs a year, approximately).

His organ improvisations shocked the Parisian audience: people from different parts of the city came to hear Saint-Saens play in the church, and one of the many regular listeners was Liszt, who highly praised his work. Later, he became friends with Liszt and the Hungarian composer would often describe him as ‘the finest organist in the world’. Liszt played a huge role in Camille’s life: an example being, his opera ”Samson et Dalila” was rejected in Paris because of the prejudice against portraying biblical characters on the stage. However, thanks to Liszt’s recommendation, it was given in German at Weimar in 1877 and was finally staged and performed in Paris in 1890 becoming his most popular opera later.

 

Camille Saint-Saens – Samson et Dalila

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGLZZz61aOM

 

From 1861- 1865 he was a professor of piano at the Niedermeyer School, where his pupils included Gabriel Faure and Andre Messager. Faure actually inspired one of Camille’s most famous pieces, his Piano Concerto No. 2 as the main theme was from Faure’s abandoned Tantum ergo motet, which Saens promised to be able to improve after Faure showed him.

During the 1870s, he began a large number of European concert tours. This allowed him and his music to be widely recognised in more countries than any other French composer of his generation, which subsequently brought him many awards and honours.

As well as his operas, he managed to find success with other compositions: his First Cello Concerto, Op. 33 which was premiered in 1873; the string quartet “Danse Macabre” in 1874 and his fourth Piano Concerto in 1875, where Camille himself played the soloist’s part. This and many more pieces labelled him as one of the best classical composers of all time.

 

Camille Saint Saens Cello Concerto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfBkzWNQTpI

Camille Saint Saens – Danse Macabre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

Camille Saint Saens – Piano Concerto N4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbr1PIzg-q8

 

He also had many more achievements: In 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, he helped find and uncover the National Society of Music, which promoted performances of the most significant French orchestral works of the upcoming generation.

Tragically, in 1878 Saint-Saëns lost both of his sons, one son fell from a fourth-floor window and the other died six weeks later from an infection that he had been expected to recover from. Three years later, he broke up with his wife. Although he married her against his mother’s wishes, later they divorced because he blamed her for the death of his sons. They never spoke again and Saint-Saens spent the rest of his life alone.

From roughly 1880 until the end of his life, his music and poetry covered every corner of dramatic and instrumental music. His Symphony No. 3 which was composed in 1886, was dedicated to the memory of Liszt, who was his dear lifelong friend. The concerto made skilled use of the organ and two pianos. He left Paris ten years later where he tragically died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1921. He was then taken back to Paris, and there was a state funeral held for him at the Madeleine, where he was buried at the cimetière du Montparnasse alongside other strong public figures.

 

PIANO CONCERTO IN G MINOR Op 22 Nr 2

As mentioned above, one of Camille’s most favourite works was his Second Piano Concerto.

But, what made it so famous? Well, it was highly unusual to the past concertos that had been performed all over the world.

The Piano Concerto in G minor Op.22 No. 2 was composed in 1868 and he spent a minimal 17 days composing this highly popular piece. However, because he was extremely unprepared for the premiere, it sounded really messy and therefore was not initially successful. It took him a long time to write this section concerto, as he had been toying with the idea of the project since his first concerto, which was written an entire decade earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCvJZtzkqQ

The composition follows the traditional form of three movements but contains more freeing tempo markings. Normally, the first movement is fast-paced, whilst the second is slower, but the first movement in Camille’s second Concerto is slow and the second movement has a scherzo-like quality, as it is quick and lively. The concerto begins with the piano solo playing a long improvised introduction.

After the orchestra enters, the restless and melancholy first theme is played again by the piano solo, which is the theme that he took from Fauré’s abandoned Tantum ergo motet mentioned above. The second movement visits E-flat major before returning again to G minor. The Presto section (III) moves quickly; this time the form is an extremely fast, fiery dance in sonata form, featuring a strong triplet figure. At presto speed, the orchestra and soloist rush tumultuously along, gaining volume and momentum and finishing in a whirlwind of G minor arpeggios.

The concerto was composed for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, crash cymbals and strings. The entire performance lasts around 23 minutes and it is known for taking some influences from Bach.

The earliest recording of this concerto -that was not Camille’s original premiere- was from Irene Scharrer in 1915, conducted by Landon Ronald. On this occasion, it was a shortened performance of the Allegro Scherzando. Another great British female pianist that transformed this concerto into one of their signature pieces was Moura Lympany. She too was 27 when she played the work at the First Night of the Proms in June 1943, which was conducted by Sir Henry Wood. Sadly, only the first and third movements have survived in playable condition.

Learn also all about Edward Elgar, the famous English Composer.