Charles Camille Saint-Saëns – a French composer, pianist, organist, conductor, music writer, public figure and teacher, was born in Paris in the beginning of October 9, 1835.

Saint-Saëns composed music in all contemporary musical genres. His most frequently performed works are – suite ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ (1887), Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin and orchestra (1863), Piano Concerto No. 2 (1868), the symphonic poem Danse macabre (1874), and the opera ‘Samson and Delilah’ (1877).

Camille Saint-Saëns' musical achievements are significant and multifaceted. He was a key figure in French and world music at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The composer was one of the founders of the symphonic poem genre in France. His works 'Danse macabre’ and ‘Spinning Wheel of Omphale’, brilliantly combine programmatic content with the highest compositional skill.
Saint-Saëns' concertos, especially the Second Piano Concerto, the Third Violin Concerto and the First Cello Concerto, are cornerstones of the repertoire for these instruments. They combine virtuoso brilliance with deep lyricism and impeccable form.

The opera ‘Samson and Delilah’ is considered the pinnacle of the composer's operatic work – one of the few French operas to have become firmly established in the world repertoire. It is known for its passionate melodies, powerful choruses and vivid oriental colour.
Chamber works by Camille Saint-Saëns – piano trios and quartets – are valued for their elegance, clarity of form and melodic richness.
Saint-Saëns himself considered the suite ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ to be a musical joke, but it is precisely this work that has become one of the most recognisable and beloved in the world, a masterpiece of musical imagery and wit.

Saint-Saëns was one of the greatest pianists of his era, often compared to Liszt. Musical memory and technical mastery of Saint-Saëns were legendary.
The musician had been working as an organist at the famous La Madeleine church in Paris for over 20 years, where his improvisations delighted audiences.

Saint-Saëns was an active promoter of music by both the old masters (Mozart, Handel, Bach) and his contemporary composers (Liszt, Schumann, Wagner). His performances and articles largely shaped the musical tastes of the French public.

In 1871, after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine founded the National Music Society (Société Nationale de Musique), whose motto was ‘Ars gallica’ (‘French art’). The mission of this musical society was to promote and develop contemporary French instrumental music, contrasting it with the dominance of the German symphonic school and Italian opera. The society became a platform for the debut of virtually all the great French composers of the time: César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and many others.

Saint-Saëns stood at the forefront of the revival of French instrumental music. However, he later came to be perceived as a conservative, a defender of classical form and purity of style, in contrast to Debussy's impressionism and the radical innovations of early Stravinsky.
C. Saint-Saëns was a teacher to such great musicians as Gabriel Fauré and André Messager, exerting a direct influence on the next generation. The composer's critical articles were always witty and accurate, but sometimes harsh towards new trends that he did not accept.

Camille Saint-Saëns was the 19^th century Renaissance man. In addition to music, he was an outstanding mathematician (he published serious works on the subject), astronomer, poet and playwright, traveller and essayist.
This encyclopaedism was also reflected in his music, which was always distinguished by its intellectual depth and structural coherence.
Thus, we can say with confidence that Saint-Saëns was not just a composer, but an architect of the musical life of France in his epoch.

To mark the 190^th birth anniversary of Camille Saint-Saëns, we have prepared a musical selection of the composer's works, mainly performed by the composer himself, digitised from Duo Art music rolls stored in the music library of the museum Collection.

The biography of Camille Saint-Saëns is posted in the Authors/Producers section.