Composer of the Month 10/2010: Camille Saint-Saëns   (selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)

France 18.10.1952 The French pianist, organist, musicologist, music educator and composer Charles Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on 9th October 1835. His musical talent was discovered and already encouraged early. At the age of eleven he gave his first public concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and at the age of 16 he was already a student at the University of Paris. He studied piano, organ and composition. From 1852 to 1877 he was organist at several Paris churches. His operas "Le Timbre d'Argent" (1865) and "Samson et Dalila" (1867) were initially not very successful. Much more success he had with his symphonic poems such as "Danse Macabre" (1875) or his "Oratorio de Noël" (1858). Nowadays Camille Saint-Saëns is known primarily for his late work "Carnival of the Animals" (1886). Camille Saint-Saëns died in Algiers on December 16th 1921. October 2010 marks his 175th birth anniversary. The video shows the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eiji Oue with the "Bacchanale" from Camille Saint-Saëns" opera "Samson and Delila". More composers in the members only section