Post Britten CoW: Saint-Saëns

[doversoul1]

With no disrespect whatsoever to Britten and his music, this week’s Composer of the Week makes me feel like a student who has just been let out from days of hard exams.

This is possibly because I am not used to listening to music with so much personal reference as it tends to be with Britten, particularly during this ‘fest’. So, I am not sure if I have actually discovered how much I like Saint-Saëns’s music or I am enjoying the airy peace of just music. Either way, I am enjoying the programmes. Is Saint-Saëns rather underrated or is he an upper-middle rate composer as he seems to be thought? I don’t often hear passionate admiration for him.

I like Saint-Saëns’s idea of composing as knitting.

[visualnickmos]

At this very moment I am listening to episode 1 from Monday, and finding it enjoyable, refreshing and illuminating. I look forward to the other episodes.

Saint-Sæns is most definitely underrated, IMO, for what that's worth. His chamber works are wonderful, intimate and engaging, for one thing. I am pretty sure that he will "have his day" within the next five years, and become totally "mainstream" if I can put it as crudely as that.
Remember; there was a time when Sibelius, even Mahler(!) and RVW were virtually composers non-grata - even as recently as the 1960s.....

That's my bit for the night. Back to Camille.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm giving COTW a wee rest this week, as, though I find Saint-Saens' music pleasant enough, most of it doesn't make any lasting impression on me. I think of him as a sort of lightweight version of many of his more "serious" French contemporaries like Franck. He was a good man in supporting Faure, as I expect will be said, if not already, and his changing views on non-French music will be covered.