Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) is among the most brilliant figures in the French school of composition. Having displayed his outstanding from his early childhood, he became a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under François Benoist and Fromental Halévy, and later with the famous Charles Gounod. Composer, organist, teacher and conductor, Saint-Saëns is one of the founders of the Société Nationale de Musique ('National Musical Society'), member of the Institut de France, doctor of the University of Cambridge and a honorary member of the Saint Petersburg Department of the Russian Musical Society. Saint-Saëns authored 13 operas, three oratorios, cantatas, masses, three symphonies; symphonic poems, suites, instrumental concertos, chamberinstrumental pieces and ensembles, songs, pieces for organ, etc. He gave concerts in many countries, performing primarily his own works. Saint-Saëns realized his most significant creative achievements in the seventies of the nineteenth century. It was during this period that his famous violoncello concerto was born, as well as the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Third for violin, the opera Samson and Delilah, and others. These works were followed by more operas, such as Henry the Eighth, (1883), Proserpina (1887), Ascanio (1890), the famous Third Symphony (with organ), The Fifth piano concerto, etc..