Saint-Saens: A Critical Biography
Musical Opinion - September 30, 1999
Denby Richards
Word count: 621.
citation details
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SAINT-SAENS: A Critical Biography
By Stephen Studd
Cygnus Arts
ISBN 190054165 3 30
These 364 pages introduce us not only to a composer whose name is a household word in its own right but also to a writer whose journalistic pedigree puts him in a much wider world than the musicologist and whose style holds the interest throughout. Camille SaintSaens deserves such a biographer. As Stephen Studd points out in his Preface, here is a composer who has been virtually laid aside by serious musical writers, yet a small but significant selection of his considerable output is extremely popular with both audiences and performers. Studd reminds us in his first disarming sentence that small children hop around as either skeletons and devils to the Danse macabre and many schools have taken advantage of the Carnival of Animals to teach their classes the fun of miming to music. The strong opening bars of the Second Piano Concerto and the majesty and power of the so-called Organ Symphony draw many a music lover to concert halls and yet this. remarkably serious composer, with an umlaut over the e in his hyphenated name, has never received the full attention his well known music suggests whenever we hear it.
Saint-Saens in his early fifties, around the time of the Organ Symphony
Organists know about Saint-Saens, of course, but organists are a musical race apart. Why? Perhaps Stephen Studd can be persuaded to bring his investigative genius to the question. In Paris the Organist at the famous Madeleine is an important and much respected musician. Saint-Saens held the post from 1858 to 1877. He wrote a number of truly scholarly books on music. He composed in virtually every genre, including music for film. His operas include Samson et Dalila, which is regularly aired, but also an opera on Henry VIII, which I would love to see staged. In recent years we have heard some of his songs, which are always interesting and often beautiful. His piano music includes sets of Studies which every budding keyboard player should try, since they are deceptively enjoyable to hear while presenting the player with technical challenges to solve.
This book takes those known facts and tackles the challenge of finding the true character and personality of a great composer by taking his life and works as seriously as he did himself. Saint-Saens lived through a fascinating period of European history and reacted to it in his teachings and writings. Stephen Studd has delved deep and also reacted, giving us the essence of this remarkable creative personality in direct, often thought-provoking and always human language. His asides show a delicious wit, simmering away under the surface until it has to pop out and make us grin with it.
Needless to say, there is a list of works, with details of dates and performances; needless to say there is a selective discography, which I am sure this volume will inspire to grow; needless to say there are some typically olde worlde photographs. What really matters is the meat within, itself brought about by the quality of the subject and the author's fascination with the task of digging for information. During which we are constantly aware of his growing admiration for this unique Frenchman.
Congratulations, too, to Cygnus Arts in the UK and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press in the USA for producing the book in such readable and well bound form and to Biddles of Guildford for printing and binding it so well. I have rarely found such a sturdy volume so easy to hold and open.
DENBY RICHARDS
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Citation Details
Title: Saint-Saens: A Critical Biography
Author: Denby Richards
Publication: Musical Opinion
Date: September 30, 1999
Publisher: Musical Opinion Limited
Volume: 122 Issue: 1418 Page: 236 |
发表于 2006-7-12 11:00:03
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