Saint-Saëns would have excelled in any intellectualpursuit, but we can be grateful he chose music. Indeed, he produced over 600works in various styles and genres over the course of his long life, and wasonce quoted as saying he produced music “as an apple tree produces apples.” Hisgifts were natural and his life largely untroubled, making him kind of a FrenchMendelssohn.
Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre, Op. 40 (1874), awaltz-fantasy for violin and orchestra, has long been a concert hall favorite.A setting of a poem by Henri Cazalis (1840-1909), it portrays Death as afiddler rousing skeletons to dance to his tune, with daybreak finally causingthe apparitions to disperse as quickly and mysteriously as they were conjured.
Of Saint-Saëns' five piano concertos only the secondhas managed to maintain a tenuous hold on the contemporary concert stage. Whilethe others should not be neglected, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22(1868) deserves to be heard more often. Suggested to him by eminent Russiancomposer-pianist Anton Rubinstein (1829-94) for an upcoming Paris concert, Saint-Saëns composed this workin a remarkable 17 days. While such haste didn't make for a particularlysuccessful debut performance, the concerto caught on with subsequentperformances and became Saint-Saëns' most popular. Unusual for a concerto, thework begins with a solemn piano cadenza, the melancholy theme eventuallywending its way through the orchestra and elaborated upon with consummateskill. Rather than the typical slow second movement, Saint-Saëns provided amischievous scherzoone of the most popular of such in the keyboard literature.The Presto finale fairly glitters with dramatic agitation, rather well suitedto the work's unusual G Minor home key.
As with his concertos, Saint-Saëns composed fivesymphonies, only one of which, Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 (1886), is everheard today. Conceived on a grand scale, it is commonly known as The OrganSymphony because of the important role that instrument plays in theworknot as a solo but as an interwoven strand of the orchestral fabric. Withinits unorthodox two-movement layout are actually all four of the conventionalsymphonic movements, alternating fast-slow-fast-slow. Saint-Saëns deftly savesthe organ's full voice for the Maestoso-Allegro finale, where it soundstriumphant chords right to the very end.
This remarkable all-Saint-Saëns concert, in whichthree of his most successful and popular works are presented together, will beperformed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Edo de Waart atUihlein Hall on May 28 and 29. The soloist for the G Minor concerto isMacedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, who has performed all over the world and hasrecorded several recital albums for EMI Classics.
