Come to the carnival
Country Life UK|August 25, 2021
A century after his death, the versatile French composer Camille Saint-Saëns is best known for his Carnival of the Animals suite, but there was much more to him than that, reveals Pippa Cuckson
Pippa Cuckson
Come to the carnival

HISTORY has dealt an injustice to the Parisian composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). As a child prodigy, he has deemed the new Mozart and celebrated throughout his 86 years. He composed more than 220 published symphonic, instrumental, choral and operatic works and 140 very French songs. He was the first major French composer to write piano concertos and the first big name to compose for the silver screen (The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, 1908).

He guaranteed his income as organist at the Church of the Madeleine for 20 years, until relieved by a legacy from admirer Albert Libon. Franz Liszt, the era’s most famous virtuoso pianist, was in awe of Saint-Saëns’s facility on any type of keyboard. Yet, since his death in 1921, he has largely dropped off the radar. The average music lover will likely pause after listing The Carnival of the Animals, the ‘Organ Symphony’ and Danse Macabre.

They may occasionally have heard his first cello concerto (of two), his second piano concerto (of five), and his sole enduring opera after many unsuccessful attempts, Samson et Dalila. Cellist Sol Gabetta was surprised that her recent performance of his A Minor cello concerto at the Proms (COUNTRY LIFE, July 28) was only it's third since the Second World War. Until this centenary year, exposure has been modest even in France, the Orchestre de Paris performing Danse Macabre for only the second time in 54 years.

Esta historia es de la edición August 25, 2021 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición August 25, 2021 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

The great astral sneeze

Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024