Camille Saint-Saëns is one of the most eminent French composers, as well as a pianist, organist, and musical erudite of encyclopedic scope. His music is distinguished by a crystalline clarity of form, elegance, melody, and brilliant command of the orchestra.
His most famous works are the witty zoological cycle “The Carnival of the Animals” (with the celebrated “The Swan”), the eerily playful symphonic “Danse macabre” (where the xylophone depicts the clatter of skeletal bones), the opera “Samson and Delilah,” the “Organ” Symphony, and piano and violin concertos. Saint-Saëns was also a pioneer of film music. Living to 86, he united in his work classical elegance with French taste and colour — the embodiment of the noble tradition of French music.
