Camille Saint-Saëns : a life

Author / Creator

Rees, Brian

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Summary

"Described as having 'the childhood of Mozart, the old-age of Titian', Camille Saint-Saens was acclaimed in his lifetime as the incarnation of French genius. His funeral rites in 1921 were breathle...

"Described as having 'the childhood of Mozart, the old-age of Titian', Camille Saint-Saens was acclaimed in his lifetime as the incarnation of French genius. His funeral rites in 1921 were breathlessly solemn and splendid. Subsequently, however, he has fallen into neglect, and this distinguished book is the first biography of him in English for thirty years." "Saint-Saens had one of the longest careers in musical history, stretching from the traditions of Beethoven to the innovations of this century. The greatest among the many great organists of nineteenth-century France, famed as an international pianist, he was the prolific composer of the witty zoology The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre and the opera Samson et Dalila. Numbered among his best-loved works are his organ symphony, second piano concerto and first cello concerto." "This book places his long and controversial career in a turbulent period when music, no less than politics, was undergoing sensational and often stormy change."--BOOK JACKET.

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