Why has the world forgotten the works of Camille Saint- Saens?
A sunken vessel, from which three or four masts protruded above the water line. This was the estimate of a recent French writer on the reputation of Camille Saint-Saens. Ten years earlier, a speaker at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris had advertised a lecture on “Saint-Saens – an unknown great composer”. Yet this was the musician who, in 1921, had been given a magnificent state funeral, where troops had to hold back the crowds along the boulevards and several carriages were needed to bear his medals and decorations. Presumably the “visible masts” recognisable by a modern generation were Le Carnaval des animaux, the Danse macabre, the aria Softly Awakes My Heart and the violin Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Yet, as with the Titanic, divers have begun to go down to search for items in the wreckage. Enterprising musicians and groups, often young, have recovered chamber music, songs and organ works. Distinguished soloists and orchestras have recorded symphonies and concertos, which h
