Camille Saint-Saëns’ (1835–1921) long life permitted him to be, as one writer said, ‘both a friend to Berlioz and an enemy of Les Six’. The same writer, Edward Sackville-West also said that Saint-Saëns was ‘an exceedingly clever and cultivated man. He was hardly less precocious than Mozart, both as a composer and pianist.’ That was the feeling 75 years ago – we don’t regard Saint-Saëns in the same light now, but his role in developing the French musical scene at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century cannot be underestimated.
Ignacy Paderewski (left) and Camille Saint-Saëns (right) seated at a pair of pianos in a lounge at the Hôtel des Trois Couronnes in Vevey, 1913. Also in the picture are Charles Pilet (organist), Viscount de Faria (consul of Portugal), Mrs Schelling, Auguste Roussy (Swiss politician), Helena Paderewska, Mr Beaud (ambassador of France to Switzerland), Eugène Couvreu (mayor of Vevey), and Ernest Schelling (American pianist–composer)
Rather than staying in France and looking longingly to the warm south, Saint-Saëns travelled extensively, spending time in North Africa (then considered part of the French Empire), and travelled and toured in the US on two occasions. He was commissioned to write a Coronation March for King Edward VII in 1902.
More than just a composer, he was also noted as a virtuoso keyboard player – his Dance Macabre was transcribed by none other than Franz Liszt, who made it difficult and then Vladimir Horowitz, who approached impossibility.
In a new recording by pianists Artur Pizarro and Ludovico Troncanetti, we are presented with a mix of Saint-Saens’ music for two pianos and a transcription of a symphonic poem (Le rouet d’Omphale, Op. 31) for 2 pianos. Omphale’s Spinning Wheel, composed in 1871, saw its performance that same year on 2 pianos before its orchestral premiere in Paris the next year. In the mythological story, the hero Hercules, who has inadvertently slain Iphitus, is sentenced to serve as a slave to Omphale, princess of the Royal House of Lydia, for one year… but dressed in her clothes.
A drunk Hercules in the service of Omphale of Lydia. He’s wearing women’s clothing (a long chiton) and has to spin wool with the women of the court. Cupids have stolen Hercules’ club, ca AD 70 (House of the Prince of Montenegro, Pompeii)
More so than in the orchestral setting, the version for two pianos seems to emphasise the long lines of wool that capture our erring hero, tying him to the Princess figuratively as well as in fact.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Le rouet d’Omphale in A Major, Op. 31 (version for 2 pianos)
In another track, Saint-Saëns’ Variations on a Theme by Beethoven, Op. 35, takes Beethoven’s Variations and Fugue in E flat, Op. 35, as its source. A variation on a variation, Saint-Saëns takes the trio section from Beethoven’s minuet movement as its source. However Beethovinian, the source, Saint-Saens’s variation is pure French fun: wide-ranging in its expression and brilliantly showing off the two keyboards.
The influence of Liszt can be seen in both the 1886 Polonaise, Op. 77, and the 1889 Scherzo, op. 87. Tricky scalar passages and complex rhythms are all added to snare the less-than-virtuoso pianist. Liszt’s death in Bayreuth in July 1886 seems to have been the inspiration for the Polonaise.
Saint-Saens’ travels in North Africa inspired three works: his symphonic poem Africa, his Egyptian piano concerto, and his Caprice arabe, op. 96, written 1894. The work is made up of fragments of melody – little cells that reinforce the idea of a caprice.
The final work on the album is the Caprice héroïque, which may have had a program behind it that is now lost. From the opening chords to the careful delineation of each pianist’s line, it is one of Saint-Saens’ finest works for two pianos.
Camille Saint-Saëns: Caprice héroïque, Op. 106
The authority that Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro (b. 1968) and Italian Ludovico Troncanetti (b. 1991) bring to this recording reflects their love of four-hand piano music. They have performed as a duo since 2023.
Saint-Saëns’ output of solo and duo piano works number nearly 200 pieces. As an introduction to both ‘straight to keyboard’ and transcribed works, this recording permits a survey of more than 20 years of Saint-Saëns’ keyboard achievements.
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