Saint-Saëns, Camille. (1835-1921). Premier Concerto pour Piano. Op. 17. Paris: Durand. [1875]. Avec l'accompt. d'orchestre reduit pour un 2ieme Piano. Score. Large folio. 53 pp. [PN] 2035. In original printed brown wrappers. In very good condition.
"Saint-Saëns's First Piano Concerto, composed in 1858, was the earliest work in this form by a major French composer. (His serious intentions regarding concerto form were underlined by the appearance of his first two violin concertos in 1858/9.) Saint-Saëns recalled at the end of his life that this piano concerto had been inspired by the Fontainebleau Forest, where he used to picnic with friends. The concerto is a delightful but sadly neglected work, its outer movements imbued with unclouded optimism and youthful vigour...In the strikingly original second movement, in which the accompaniment is greatly reduced to strings, clarinet and bassoon, Saint-Saëns creates a haunting and rather improvisatory atmosphere with typical economy of means. In the cadenza-like solo passages (often notated without bar-lines), the wonderfully fluid, almost impressionistic writing, marked 'rapido e delicato', seems to anticipate Ravel by a good fifty years." (Philip Borg-Wheeler, Hyperion)
"Saint-Saëns's First Piano Concerto, composed in 1858, was the earliest work in this form by a major French composer. (His serious intentions regarding concerto form were underlined by the appearance of his first two violin concertos in 1858/9.) Saint-Saëns recalled at the end of his life that this piano concerto had been inspired by the Fontainebleau Forest, where he used to picnic with friends. The concerto is a delightful but sadly neglected work, its outer movements imbued with unclouded optimism and youthful vigour...In the strikingly original second movement, in which the accompaniment is greatly reduced to strings, clarinet and bassoon, Saint-Saëns creates a haunting and rather improvisatory atmosphere with typical economy of means. In the cadenza-like solo passages (often notated without bar-lines), the wonderfully fluid, almost impressionistic writing, marked 'rapido e delicato', seems to anticipate Ravel by a good fifty years." (Philip Borg-Wheeler, Hyperion)
Saint-Saëns, Camille. (1835-1921). Premier Concerto pour Piano. Op. 17. Paris: Durand. [1875]. Avec l'accompt. d'orchestre reduit pour un 2ieme Piano. Score. Large folio. 53 pp. [PN] 2035. In original printed brown wrappers. In very good condition.
"Saint-Saëns's First Piano Concerto, composed in 1858, was the earliest work in this form by a major French composer. (His serious intentions regarding concerto form were underlined by the appearance of his first two violin concertos in 1858/9.) Saint-Saëns recalled at the end of his life that this piano concerto had been inspired by the Fontainebleau Forest, where he used to picnic with friends. The concerto is a delightful but sadly neglected work, its outer movements imbued with unclouded optimism and youthful vigour...In the strikingly original second movement, in which the accompaniment is greatly reduced to strings, clarinet and bassoon, Saint-Saëns creates a haunting and rather improvisatory atmosphere with typical economy of means. In the cadenza-like solo passages (often notated without bar-lines), the wonderfully fluid, almost impressionistic writing, marked 'rapido e delicato', seems to anticipate Ravel by a good fifty years." (Philip Borg-Wheeler, Hyperion)
"Saint-Saëns's First Piano Concerto, composed in 1858, was the earliest work in this form by a major French composer. (His serious intentions regarding concerto form were underlined by the appearance of his first two violin concertos in 1858/9.) Saint-Saëns recalled at the end of his life that this piano concerto had been inspired by the Fontainebleau Forest, where he used to picnic with friends. The concerto is a delightful but sadly neglected work, its outer movements imbued with unclouded optimism and youthful vigour...In the strikingly original second movement, in which the accompaniment is greatly reduced to strings, clarinet and bassoon, Saint-Saëns creates a haunting and rather improvisatory atmosphere with typical economy of means. In the cadenza-like solo passages (often notated without bar-lines), the wonderfully fluid, almost impressionistic writing, marked 'rapido e delicato', seems to anticipate Ravel by a good fifty years." (Philip Borg-Wheeler, Hyperion)