Saint-Saëns, Camille

Preface

Camille Saint-Saëns – Morceau de Concert pour harpe avec accompagnement d’orchestre, op. 154

(9 October 1835, Paris, France – 16 December 1921, Algiers, Algeria)

(1918)
Concert Piece for Harp with orchestra, op. 154

Composed and premiered
1918

Dedicated to
Mademoiselle Nicole Anckier (1894-1967)

Publication
April 1919, A. Durand & File, Éditeurs. Imp. Mounot, Nicolas & Cie.
Orchestral score: Durand & Cie., Plate 9651; Orchestral parts, Plate 9655; Harp only, Plate 9625.
On the printer’s copy of the autograph piano reduction: CotD. & F. 9625.

Orchestration
harp solo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

The Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns was a short, witty, sarcastic French composer remembered mainly for his opera Samson and Delilah and the orchestral showpieces Danse macabre and Carnival of the Animals. He began as a child prodigy, picking out tunes on the piano at two and making a public début as a pianist at five. Soon after, his parents took him to a Parisian symphony concert; he enjoyed the string serenade, but cried out at the brass entrance, “Make them stop. They prevent my hearing the music.” He was removed.

Saint-Saëns was an enthusiastic admirer of ballet, and liked to dance socially. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at age fifteen, winning prizes in every class and studying under the Parisian-Jewish composer Jacques Halevy (1799-1862). Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet (who married Halévy’s daughter) were his closest friends at the Conservatoire. All three young composers publicly admired the progressive elements of Berlioz, Liszt, and especially Wagner’s music, but their compositions tended to be characterized as arch-conservative for their opposition to Debussy, late Strauss, and Stravinsky (Saint-Saëns walked out of the premiere of Le sacre du printemps). …

 

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