Ah, the 50s. Fears of communism. Teddy Boys. Good suits. Cone-shaped bullet bras. I wonder if, in the early years of the 20th Century, Saint-Saens looked back on his early music and shook his head with a rueful grimace “Mon dieu, my music back then was SO 1850s”.
It’s funny because, unlike most composers, I don’t necessarily sense any major change and development in style in Saint-Saens throughout his long life, although I’m going to be interested to see if that opinion changes as I (slowly) continue working through his works. Think of how radically Stravinsky changed styles, or even Beethoven and Mozart show clear development. With Saint-Saens, with the exception of some early Mendelssohnian like music like the Chorus of Sylphs, it’s much more difficult to spot a progression. THis is not to say that there is no variety in style. The Mass occupies a completely different stylistic niche and sound world from the 1st Violin Concerto.
In this survey of Saint-Saens’ complete music, I have, more or less (I may have missed stuff which I wasn’t able to track down, or even know about), reached the end of the 1850s. We have progressed from Saint-Saens being a precocious (never a complimentary word in my book) 15-year old, to an established professional composer and organist (though with still precocious tendencies). Successful, but not wildly successful as yet.
Pretentious, moi?
As I said when I started this whole shebang one of my aims was to try and identify music by Saint-Saens that is undeservedly obscure. Now would be a good time to take stock and provide a top ten list of the pieces that I would say are most worth listening to from the 1850s. At this stage, none of these works are well known, so they can all be considered somewhat under-discovered gems. PLAY THESE MORE CONCERT PROGRAMMERS!
All of these pieces can be heard through the Spotify playlist I have curated at the bottom of the list here.
10. Duettino
For a pianist, Saint-Saens wrote surprisingly little solo piano music, and from the 1850s there’s very little to choose from – basically the six bagatelles Op.3, which left me cold. This piano duet, though, is much more enticing. A stately introduction gives way to a jaunty finale. Sounds bloomin’ difficult to play though. You’d probably have to deal with an elbow in your midriff if you were to play this with me.
9. Symphony in F – “Urbs Roma”
I’m putting this in my top 10 because of its unusual final movement – a theme and variations based on a minuet. It shouldn’t work, but the variations become increasingly adventurous (5/4-time). That what starts out being just mildly pleasant because engrossing. I also liked that he resists the temptation to just bang crash wallop at the end and brings the symphony, Saint-Saens’ longest, to a gentle quiet conclusion. The creepy slow movement, later recycled to be part of the first ever film score, also is unusual in its sinuous plodding.
8. Pastorale
I’ve been impressed with most of Saint-Saens songs. They genuinely deserve to be better known. They are short, unpretentious (well, musically, perhaps not lyrically where they can be left wanting). This short duet can be played either jauntily or with a bit more lyricism, but it’s one of those refreshing pieces
7. Overture to an unfinished comic opera
A piece that didn’t receive any performance until 1913 (under the baton of Thomas Beecham in London). If you are looking for an obscure, lightly scored (effectively a chamber orchestra), but semi-Rossinian type piece that deserves some resurrection, then look no further. After many years without a recording the lovely Malmo Philharmonic Orchestra now have released this on the Naxos label (where else?).
6. Ave Verum Corpus – from Eight Motets au Saint Sacrament
If you type “Ave Verum Corpus Saint Saens” into a Youtube search, you will get dozens of hits. These though are later settings of the text saying hi to a body. This early setting though is great and mournfully poignant. The excellent recording by the Flemish Radio Choir, with its delicate horn solo is what sold me on this piece (you can listen to a bit of it by following the link).
Not sure why someone would make a song out of King John’s lack of arms – but thankfully Saint-Saens did. And it’s cod pomposity and military pastiche makes it by far the most entertaining of his songs I’ve heard so far. I’ve also now tracked down the orchestral version, which is even more fun….
Like the Ave Verum Corpus, this version of the Tantrum Ego is almost impossible to track down (just the one recording that I could find, and not on YouTube), and yet it make a great atmospheric choral piece, with touches of Barber’s Adagio.
The more I hear this, the more I really like it. From the bracing horn call to start it, to the thrilling reappearance of the same horn call right at the end of the tub-thumping finale. It’s virtuosic, and has a great slow movement as well. It’s not that much of a leap from the 2nd and 5th piano concertos (which are regularly performed). Perhaps just a touch shorter on melodic ideas, but to me it’s more fun and interesting than either of Chopin’s two piano concertos, for example. Maybe I’m biased by Stephen Hough’s excellent recording on Hyperion.
2. Tarantelle for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra
Another piece with great humour, but also impressive in its virtuosity. You’ll be stamping spider venom out of your legs with this. I would have thought that this would be an ideal show piece for an orchestra to show off the skills of a couple of its principals (the oboe also gets in on the action in the later half of the piece). Certainly as worth programming as something like the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
I was hoping that maybe I might just find a piece from the 1850s that would supplant my love of this piece, but none really quite topple it. The gentle simplicity of this 10-movement work just never fails to get to me. Throw in a harp, and organ, some strings and some good singers, and I’m anyones. This is the piece if you are looking for some different Christmas music from Messiah or the Bach version of the same piece. You can almost here the shepherds darning their socks by night.
The Complete Works of Camille Saint-Saens 
Thanks for the well written article.
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