Thursday 17 May 2012

Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2


Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2

Huh! What did I say? Something by Saint-Saens to listen to each week!! So true!

This has been an interesting one! Managed to watch quite a lot of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, so I’ve actually heard quite a lot of music. I wasn’t sure which of the 5 Saint-Saens piano concertos to listen to (it’s a boxed set of containing all 5), so I asked Shrimp to chose for me. The odd thing here is that he chose no.2, which just happens to be the one played by the 2010 winner of that same competition, Lara Melda!

I absolutely love all the concertos – but then I am a Saint-Saens fan! According to the CD insert, no.2 is the most popular of the concertos, and, rather astonishingly, was composed in about 3 weeks in 1868! The premiere was conducted by Anton Rubinstein, with Saint-Saens himself at the piano. Unlike traditional concertos, the movements are slow-quick-quick, and begins with a Bach-style toccata solo, the middle movement shows the influence of Mendelssohn, and the finale is a run-away tarantella, showing the influence of Offenbach!

Strangely, I’ve been wondering lately whatever happened to a book I ordered; this is strange because I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday and was about to chase it when lo and behold it arrived today! Anyway, it’s Saint-Saens: his life and art, by Watson Lyle, published in 1923. Ironically, it has come from a public library in the States, via Betterworldbooks!

Anyway, as you can imagine, Lyle has quite a lot to say about all of Saint-Saens’ work. Here’s a snippet about the 2nd piano concerto:

“The second movement, Allegro Scherzando, is airily graceful in character […] It is in six-eight throughout, and the colour impression of ethereal elusiveness is created at the outset by the scoring of the strings, pizzicato, while tympani denote the rhythm. At bar 5 the pianoforte enters with a theme of elfin capriciousness, a veritable Danse de Puck…” !

Well, if only we used rich, descriptive language like that today!

He goes on to say:

“The rhythm […] is so compelling that I have heard audiences, even of the best-regulated brands, tapping their feet pp. in sympathy with the musicians!”

Tut tut!

To sum up, if you haven’t heard this piece, do go listen, it’s really worth it! 

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