Camille Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto No. 5, "Egyptian"
Camille Saint-Saëns began composing at the precocious age of three and at
eleven debuted as a concert pianist, offering as an encore to play any Beethoven
sonata the audience could name. The brilliant child grew into a virtuoso pianist
and internationally acclaimed organist who poured out elegant,
perfectly-proportioned works as naturally, he said, as "an apple tree
producing apples." Considered relatively modern in his youth - he championed
the music of Schumann and Wagner, and was friends with Berlioz and Lizst - he
lived to become something of a reactionary, protesting works by Debussy and
outraged by Stravinsky. Though today Saint-Saëns is known for a relatively few
works (his so-called "organ" Symphony No. 3, 1886; the opera Samson and
Delilah, 1877, and the ever-popular Carnival of the Animals, 1886),
he published nearly 300 compositions in his 86 years.
In 1872 he received a large bequest from the estate of the director of the
French Post Office, who felt that a gifted composer should not have to work (as
organist of La Madeleine in Paris) to supplement his income. This money,
together with income from royalties and performance fees, let Saint-Saëns
indulge his passion for travel. As a conductor he worked in Moscow, London, and
the United States. He also visited Brazil, Ceylon, and Algiers. The Piano
Concerto No. 5 was composed in Luxor during a visit to Egypt, and Saint-Saëns
premiered it in 1896 with himself as soloist at a Jubilee Concert given to
commemorate his precocious debut 50 years earlier.
Though the work is nicknamed "Egyptian" due to its compositional
birthplace, it is actually a synthesis of many of the composer's eastern
wanderings. Saint-Saëns himself said that the piece depicts a sea voyage. The
first movement contrasts swelling, pulsing crescendos and bursts of rapid energy
with a more languid, sometimes plaintive theme, perhaps suggesting the alternate
excitement and ennui, or even loneliness, of the traveler. The piano part
features brilliant runs up and down the keyboard like swiftly flowing waters.
Yet in the end the languid theme segues to quiet ripples and a few soft notes as
our traveler comes to safe harbor.
The second movement contains the most exotic melodies in the piece, and
features a Nubian love song the composer heard on the Nile. Some of the more
eastern-sounding effects include moments when the pianist plays a set of
parallel sixths separated by several octaves, and a quasi-Asian melody in the
left hand against a "Chopsticks"-like repetition in the right hand. The
movement is framed by episodes of pulsing strings, but ultimately calmed by the
piano's final slow notes.
The third movement begins with a flurry of motion from the piano, joined
quickly by the full orchestra in a vivacious theme. The entire section is
fraught with activity, with soloist and orchestra trading propulsive melodies.
The oboe and then the strings sound a sinuous theme over the piano's cascading
notes, the latter then breaking into thumping chords that herald the final
vigorous passage. Our sense of motion is increased as the piano rises up the
scale in opposition to strings and woodwinds traveling downward, and we return
to the jaunty tune of the beginning. Then, with an insistent beat from the
timpani (said to resemble the sound of a ship's propeller) the piano cascades
upward and the movement is brought to a fiery close. It seems we have reached
our final destination in Saint-Saëns' journey, complete with fireworks and a
flourish.
February 11, 2001
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