# SS 05.01.19 - Saint-Saens #1



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening! 
_*
*_For your listening pleasure this weekend:*

Camille Saint-Saens **(1835 - 1921)*

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 2
1. Adagio. Allegro
2. Marche Scherzo. Allegretto scherzando
3. Adagio
4. Finale: Allegro maestoso

---------------------

Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


----------



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

The first weekend of the New Year is here and this week it's French composer Camille Saint-Saens's first symphony. I always enjoy hearing Saint-Saens so I'm looking forward to listening to this one again.

I'll be listening to this one on disc, but I'll post a YouTube link as well for anyone who doesn't have a recording.





Jean Martinon/Orchestre National de L'ORTF


----------



## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall go with this version via streaming


----------



## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

Always enjoy discovering rarely-played Saint Saens works. Same Martinon recording for me from the two-disc set of his complete symphonies.


----------



## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I'll try this performance which I haven't heard. Augustin Dumay and the Kansai Phil.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Another new (to me) symphony! I'll be listening to this one via free Amazon Prime streaming. It seems S-S wrote this at age 17…


----------



## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Despite being a very early work, the work doesn't lack charm, it's certainly uplifting and it's scored for a big orchestra.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I am going to spin this one later on.


----------



## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Haydn man said:


> View attachment 111319
> 
> I shall go with this version via streaming


I will listen this one also


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

KenOC said:


> Another new (to me) symphony! I'll be listening to this one via free Amazon Prime streaming. It seems S-S wrote this at age 17…


I got this a while back so it's about time I listened. It definitely replaces Martinon's recording of the first two, for me. Lovely recording and dynamics. I've always thought Saint-Saens' first symphony sounds like Schumann (although I very rarely play it these days). Enjoyed this one before.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

It’s easy for me to forget how long Saint-Saens was with us. He wrote this symphony at 17 (yes, he was a major prodigy) when Schumann’s career was just being shut down by madness and Brahms, older by two years, had yet to make any mark at all.

For a composer of such youth, the symphony is remarkably assured and technically accomplished. There are no noticeable blemishes, no miscalculated exaggerations or lapses in taste, and no traces of the efforts and difficulties that writing it undoubtedly entailed. At the same time, it’s obvious that Saint-Saens hadn’t found an individual voice -- so there’s little about the symphony that’s particularly compelling. Still, I’d happily stack it up against the symphonies of the pre-Elgarian composers working in the British Isles later in the century (recently featured in this forum). Saint-Saens is just so fluent!

An enjoyable listen worth revisiting occasionally, and a very interesting pick for the SS.


----------

