Going against the grain of French musical life in the mid-19th century, Camille Saint-Saëns’ main love was instrumental music. Extraordinarily active in the field of chamber music, not only as a composer but also as a performer, he might rightfully

Musicians and composers in the 19th century clearly understood that the orchestral tone color could be significantly enhanced by the sometimes subtle, sometimes seismic impact of the pipe organ’s commanding voice. In his famous treatise on orchestration, Hector Berlioz wrote,

The Belgian mezzo-soprano Désirée Artôt (1835-1907) studied with Pauline Viardot and Francesco Lamperti in London and in Paris. She started her career at the Paris Opera in 1858 when Giacomo Meyerbeer engaged her to sing in his Le prophète. Berlioz,

For a variety of extra-musical reasons, Camille Saint-Saëns has never been taken seriously as one of the great French composers of the late 19th-century. Historically informed, widely read in the French classics, religion, Latin, Greek, and acquiring a taste for

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) was one of the first performers and composers in a long line of French organists who took advantage of the versatility of the symphonic pipe organ. Devoted to the organ from an early age, he went to

Boris Asafyev, one of the founders of Soviet musicology, wrote the following summary assessment regarding Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, “He was the first composer of a new Russian type… in a deeply original, personal and national style he united the symphonic

Magnificent pipe organs of various sizes and innovative designs are an integral architectural and musical part of most dedicated concert halls. Freed from its customary sacred and/or liturgical functions, the instrument is capable of taking on a number of exciting

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was, and still is, an international musical superstar. However, the first professional composer of consequence in Russia was an elusive man who simultaneously craved and loathed fame. In a letter to his music publisher, he writes, “I