Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals

This humorous & popular zoological fantasy "Le carnaval des animaux" (1886)(Carnival of the Animals), for two pianos and orchestra was originally aimed as an intimate piece only for the enjoyment of the composer's close friends and not for the public audience. Saint-Saëns said he wrote it almost as a joke, so he forbade performances in his lifetime because he thought it would "damage" his "serious" reputation. The composer died on 1921, thus it was performed for the first time on 2/25/1922.

Of the thirteen operas completed by Saint-Saëns, it is "Samson et Dalila" (1877) the one which has held the stage on the 20th century. It is a romantic treatment of the biblical story with its strongly appealing scenes (and excellent milieu of the powerful & dramatic voice of the tenor Plácido Domingo as "Samson"). He also wrote 'exotic' works (you should listen the Egyptian mood of the 2nd movement ("Andante") of the 5th piano concerto).

The symphonic poems included here: Phaéton (1872), Le Rouet d'Omphale (1874), and the Danse Macabre (1874), in a style influenced by Liszt & using thematic transformation, came as an innovation for the frenchmen in the 1870's, and they have been very popular since (this music has been used on cartoons for half a century). I enjoyed them all through the convincing & able conducting of Charles Dutoit!...