Saint-Saens belongs in his own country to a small circle
 of representatives of the idea of progress in music.
P. Tchaikovsky

Camille Saint-Saens, author of the famous suite “Carnival of Animals”, the opera “Samson and Delilah”, the symphonic poem “Dance of Death”, the instrumental play “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” and other musical masterpieces, was a French composer of the Romantic era. A talented master of organ playing, a virtuoso pianist and conductor, whose preferences laid in the field of classics, played an important role in the development of music, transferring his own experience to future generations of composers.

Having lived a long life, Saint-Saens was working from an early age until the end of his days, especially fruitfully in the field of instrumental genres. His interests were wide: an outstanding composer, pianist, conductor, witty polemic critic, he was interested in literature, astronomy, zoology, botany, traveled a lot, and was in friendly relations with many major musical figures.

Exceptionally gifted, Saint-Saens brilliantly mastered the composing technique. He possessed amazing artistic flexibility, freely adapted to different styles, creative manners, embodied a wide range of images, themes, and plots.

For Saint-Saens birthday, we have prepared musical selection of the composer's works, mainly in his own performance, recorded on Duo-Art paper music rolls, stored in the musical library of the museum Collection.

The biography of Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns is in the section AUTHORS.