Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) was a
French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the
Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto
(1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre
(1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third
Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony
(1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert
debut ...(+)
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921) was a
French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the
Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction
and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto
(1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre
(1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third
Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony
(1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886).
Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy; he made his concert
debut at the age of ten. After studying at the Paris
Conservatoire he followed a conventional career as a
church organist, first at Saint-Merri, Paris and, from
1858, La Madeleine, the official church of the French
Empire. After leaving the post twenty years later, he
was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in
demand in Europe and the Americas.
Of his lesser-know works, the Trois Préludes et Fugues
(Three Preludes & Fugues - Op 109), were completed in
February 1898 at Las Palmas and are dedicated
respectively to Fauré, Périlhou and Henri Dallier,
who since 1879 had been organist of St Eustache and was
to succeed Fauré at La Madeleine in 1905. On the
receipt of a complimentary copy of the newly published
work, Fauré wrote to Saint-Saëns: ‘Upon my return
from London I found the superb Préludes et Fugues for
organ which I will never be able to play properly, and
I had the great joy of seeing my name at the head of
one of them. I thank you a thousand times for this
pleasant and flattering surprise.’
Saint-Saëns was renowned for his improvised fugues and
Op 109 demonstrates well the ‘clean, clear, incisive
subject, the surprisingly ingenious countersubject, the
exquisitely imaginative and inventive episodes’ of
which Huré wrote. Saint-Saëns himself related the
anecdote of the bride who shocked him with the request
not to play fugues at her wedding as they were too
serious, and whilst Op 150 reveals an array of
improvisatory possibilities, Op 109 attests also to the
variety of his fugues. The first and third of Op 109,
in D minor and C major respectively, are certainly cast
in the grand style that he advocated for the
instrument, though with varying characters. The G
major, however, is full of the charm, grace and balance
found in so much of his music. Vierne praised the works
for their form and colour and asserted that they should
be ‘… in the repertoire of any organist truly
worthy of the name, as much for their superb style as
for their virtuosic demands’.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns
).
Although originally composed for Solo Piano, I created
this interpretation of the Prelude and Fugue in D Minor
(Op. 109 No. 1) for Clarinet Quartet (3 Bb Clarinets &
Bass Clarinet).
SHEET MUSIC