Once described as the French Mendelssohn , Saint-Saëns
was a talented and precocious child, with interests by
no means confined to music. As a child he had lessons
with Stamaty and Boëly, and made his debut as a
pianist at the age of ten. He entered the Paris
Conservatoire in 1848, where he was taught by Halévy.
His extraordinary gifts won him the admiration of
Gounod, Rossini, Berlioz and especially Liszt, who
described him as the world?s greatest organist. He
wrote on various musical, scien...(+)
Once described as the French Mendelssohn , Saint-Saëns
was a talented and precocious child, with interests by
no means confined to music. As a child he had lessons
with Stamaty and Boëly, and made his debut as a
pianist at the age of ten. He entered the Paris
Conservatoire in 1848, where he was taught by Halévy.
His extraordinary gifts won him the admiration of
Gounod, Rossini, Berlioz and especially Liszt, who
described him as the world?s greatest organist. He
wrote on various musical, scientific and historical
subjects, and tried to revive interest in older music,
particularly that of J. S. Bach, Handel and Rameau. In
1871 he founded, together with Romain Bussine, the
Société Nationale de Musique to revive the artistic
and cultural value of French music.
This unlikely pairing of national sources is the result
of the marriage of the Czar of Russia to a Danish
princess, and was dedicated to the Czarina. It is a
twelve-minute fantasy for flute, oboe, clarinet, and
piano. It was composed in 1887, by which time the royal
couple had been married for some years.
It is in four brief movements. In the opening part, all
the woodwind instruments are given equal parts,
participating in dialogues with each other. The second
movement features the flute and soloist. The third has
the oboe in the spotlight. The final movement is a
lively Allegro vivace with solo passages for all the
instruments, especially the clarinet.
SHEET MUSIC