Complete Music for Piano & Orchestra

Abstract

Among Saint-Saëns's pieces written after Viennese Classical-era models are his piano concertos, the first few of which are some of the earliest works in the genre composed in France. Although it was written in 1858, his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 17, was not published until 1875. Through the 1860s Saint-Saëns performed the First Piano Concerto on numerous occasions and later, in 1920, wrote that the piece was inspired by the forest of Fontainebleau. Ten years separate this first concerto from the second, which may explain the adolescent abandon with which Saint-Saëns approaches the concerto, prompting his virtuoso technique to take center stage. With an unusual lack of sensitivity, Saint-Saëns supporter Emile Baumann described the first concerto as "youthful hyperbole; runs, arpeggios of exuberant proportions, an ambitious sortie into grandiose prolixity." Unfortunately, this tells us nothing of the composer's attempt to modify the Classical form of the concerto.

The Introduction to the first movement begins with a hunting call for horn that is taken up and completed by the piano. (Some have likened this theme to that of the Allegro vivace theme of Chopin's F minor Concerto.) Shortly thereafter we hear an idea that becomes the "motto" in this cyclically conceived concerto. This motto also marks off the sections of the first movement, acting as transitional material in a manner that shows Saint-Saëns working symphonic thinking into the concerto format. At times, especially in the middle of the movement, the piano is subservient to orchestra, the overall argument becoming an egalitarian conversation that is hinted at in the introduction when the piano finishes the horn theme.

Antagonism is at the heart of the second movement, in which the first theme, a descending phrase in the orchestra, is broken off several times by chords in the piano. Eventually, the piano wins and moves to a flashy cadenza, unusual for a slow movement. Ornamental trills at the close of the second movement are much more than decorative and serve a harmonic function, a concept pursued by Ravel in his Jeux d'eau of 1901.

In the lighthearted, sonata-form finale the horn calls and the motto theme of the introduction returns in the final measures. The secondary theme of the finale is, at first, very lyrical, but is transformed by the end to create a loud, crashing close. The alternation of chords between the piano and orchestra is the full realization of the implied equality between the forces found in the first movement. This process is also clear in the various presentations of the second theme, which in the first instance is performed in the piano with brief interruptions from the orchestra, but in the recapitulation the roles are reversed, with the orchestra stating the theme against piano outbursts. Published in 1875 in Paris, Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto in E flat Major, Op. 29, is dedicated to pianist Elie-Myriam Delaborde. Although all five of Saint-Saëns' concertos, to some extent, follow Viennese models, the Third is arguably the most traditional in its formal procedures. (There were few French models of the piano concerto available at the time.) Other aspects of the piece, however, make it innovative, and the keyboard writing betrays Saint-Saëns' assimilation of Liszt's style.

Shortly after he had completed the Third Concerto, Saint-Saëns performed the piece in concert in Leipzig Gewandhaus, where it was poorly received. Strange as it may seem today, reviewers of the concert counted Saint-Saëns among the "progressive" composers of the time—Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner—whom they despised. One reviewer resented the concerto's "futuristic aftertaste," calling the piece "trite." In Paris, the piece faired no better, one critic calling it "comparable to everything incoherent and tormented in Liszt's late manner." Comments such as these are more likely a response to Saint-Saëns' publicly expressed approval of Liszt and Wagner than an evaluation of the Third Piano Concerto. Ten years would pass before the piece was well received, after which it disappeared from the repertoire, overshadowed by the popular Second Concerto.

Saint-Saëns once related that the opening of the concerto was suggested to him by the sound of a river. Rippling passages in the piano provide the background for orchestral announcements of the main theme at the beginning of the sonata-form first movement. It is possibly the most rigidly sectionalized of Saint-Saëns' concerto movements; even the development has clear divisions. The first of these develops themes in a lyrical fashion, with the piano taking the lead. After a flamboyant cadenza, the second part of the development begins, the orchestra continuing the musical argument. The closing passage, in which we hear a genuine conflict between the orchestra and soloist, was a new development in the French concerto.

The Andante begins with chromatic chords that outraged members of the audience at the Leipzig performance. Providing welcome contrast to the muscular outer movements, the Andante is a lovely, lyrical movement. The unusual opening harmonies lead to a hymn-like theme for the strings that is later shared with the woodwinds and piano. A contrasting theme appears in the lower register of both the piano and strings that continues the innovative harmonic progressions of the opening sections. When this theme returns near the end of the movement, elements of the impending Finale infect it, preparing for the plunge, without pause, into the third movement.

"Frothy" might best describe the Finale and its frivolous main theme. The pianist traverses nearly the entire keyboard during the rising melody, which dissolves into a transition that leads to a lyrical secondary theme. In an old-fashioned manner, Saint-Saëns repeats the entire exposition, but the rest of the movement is continuous development to the end, without a clear recapitulation. Brief sounds that evoke parrots and cockatoos are references to some of the birds kept by Delaborde, the concerto's dedicatee.