Scholarly Saint-Saens

Musical Times, Autumn 2002 by Simeone, Nigel

IN order to evaluate not only the thoroughness of Dr Ratner's approach, but also its usefulness, I will consider two entries in detail: those for the Symphony no.3, op.78 (the 'Organ' Symphony) and Le carnaval des animaux. First, the symphony. The 'Composition' subheading tells us that the work was composed in `April 1886' but provides no further details. In fact, as the entry itself shows later on, this bald date is something of an over-simplification and even a little misleading: under 'Correspondence' we find a splendid array of letters about the work, in particular the exchange between Saint-Saens and Francesco Berger of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, starting in August 1885, and the composer's letters to Durand. Saint-Saens was certainly at work on the piece throughout February and March 1886 as well as in April (and even into May, when final adjustments were made during the rehearsals for the work's premiere in London).

The entry then moves on to the work's dedication, 'a la memoire de Franz Liszt'. However, since Liszt did not die until 31 July 1886 and the symphony was completed in April and first performed on 19 May the same year, it would have been helpful to have provided a fuller explanation of the history of this dedication - not least because the ailing (but still living) Liszt wrote to SaintSaens on 19 June 1886, expressing his delight at having the work dedicated to him (as we discover on reading the 'Correspondence' section of the entry). According to Bonnerot (C. Saint-Saens: sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, 1922, p.124), Saint-Saens initially wrote the Symphony `as a homage to his master and friend Franz Liszt', presumably to celebrate the latter's seventy-fifth birthday.

The description of documents under `Autographs' provides detailed and lucidly presented information about surviving manuscripts, their location, paper-types, foliation and/or pagination, with comments on particular points of interest. 'Publication' is again admirably (but not obsessively) detailed: a transcription of the title page for the principal edition (in this case the full orchestral score), followed by details of subsequent editions and arrangements by Saint-Saens and others. As with manuscripts, the bibliographical information on first and early editions is presented with clarity and a minimum of fuss, and it is invaluable to have the dates when copies were deposited under the Depot legal.

So much for the sources. The work's reception is the focus for the rest of the entry. Ratner gives the first performance information straightforwardly enough (`19 May 1886 at the 5th concert of the Philharmonic Society, St James's Hall, London, conducted by Saint-Saens'), but I must confess that I long to know a little more about this event: who, for instance, was the organist (Ratner identifies organists for many later performances)? Did Joseph Bennett's programme-note for the concert contain any interesting information about the work? What else was on the programme? For the curious, a complete answer to this last question is actually to be found elsewhere in the catalogue: plate 3 reproduces the first page of the programme: the most important piece was Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with Saint-Saens as soloist, conducted by Sullivan. (Frustratingly, this page of the programme doesn't identify the organist). I cannot find a reference to this most helpful illustration anywhere in the entry on the symphony itself - a curious lapse of cross-referencing. The list of significant later performances given during Saint-Saens's lifetime makes for intriguing reading: conductors included not only the usual suspects (Colonne, Taffanel, Garcin, Saint-Saens himself), but also two great names in the history of Debussy performance: Andre Messager (Pelleas et Melisande) and Gustave Doret (Prelude a l'apresmidi d'un faune). Messager had every reason to be grateful to Saint-Saens, since it was at the latter's behest that the Opera commissioned Messager to write his delectable ballet Les deux pigeons, but he seems to have had a particularly soft-spot for this symphony.