Camille Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto no. 2 in g minor op. 22
Given Saint-Saëns’ talents both as pianist and composer, it stood to reason that he would engage with the piano concerto genre early on. But he gave a clear renunciation of the “concerto brilliant” that was dominant in France at that time, declaring instead that “the solo part of a concerto must be set out, and treated, like a dramatic role”. He realised this concept of a “symphonic concerto” in this second piano concerto, composed in 1868. The solo part is technically very challenging, and at the same time closely bound up with the orchestra. Johannes Umbreit is responsible for the piano reduction, based on the composer’s own version for two pianos; Pascal Rogé supplies the fingerings for the solo part.
About the Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns
Saint-Saëns was one of the most multifaceted musicians of the second half of the nineteenth century in France. Regarded as a Classicist, he also wrote pieces with an Impressionist character to their sound, and one composition in quarter-tones. As a critic and essayist he was involved in the first complete editions of Rameau’s and Gluck’s works.
| 1835 | Born in Paris on October 9. Early comprehensive education. |
| 1848–52 | Studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. |
| 1853 | Organist at St. Merry Church in Paris. |
| 1853–59 | First large-scale works: Symphony No. 1, Op. 2 (1853), and No. 2, Op. 55 (1859); Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 17 (1858); Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 20 (1859); Mass, Op. 4 (1856); he attempts to arrive at unique forms. |
| 1857–77 | Organist at La Madeleine in Paris. |
| 1861–65 | He teaches at the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse Niedermeyer. |
| 1871 | Founding of the Société Nationale de musique. |
| 1871–77 | Composition of symphonic poems “Le rouet d’Omphale” (“The Wheel of Omphale,” 1871), “Phaéton” (1873), “Danse macabre” (1874), “La jeunesse d’Hercule” (1877). |
| 1876 | Attends the performance of the Ring in Bayreuth. |
| 1877 | Performance in Weimar of his opera “Samson et Dalila.” |
| 1881 | Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. |
| 1883 | Performance in Paris of his opera “Henry VIII.” |
| 1885 | Publication of the treatise “Harmonie et mélodie.” |
| 1886 | Performance in London of his Organ Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in C minor): major work with thematic transformation after Liszt’s model. Composition of “The Carnival of the Animals,” the publication of which he forbade during his lifetime. |
| 1899 | Publication of the book “Portraits et souvenirs.” |
| 1900 | Cantata “Le feu celeste” in praise of electricity, for the opening of the Exposition Universelle. |
| 1921 | Death in Algiers on December 16. |
About the Authors
Peter Jost (Editor)
Dr. Peter Jost, born in 1960 in Diefflen/Saar, read musicology, German and comparative studies at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. He did his PhD in 1988 with a thesis on Robert Schumann’s Waldszenen.
From November 1991 to April 2009 he was a research associate at the Richard Wagner Complete Edition in Munich, and since May 2009 has been an editor at G. Henle Publishers. His Urtext editions comprise predominantly French music of the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Lalo, Saint-Saëns and Ravel.
Johannes Umbreit (Piano reduction)
Prof. Johannes Umbreit studied the piano at the Musikhochschule in Munich. From 1987 onwards he was a regular accompanist at courses given by Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Thomas Brandis, Ljerko Spiller, Igor Ozim, Olga Woitowa, Ernő Sebestyén, Walter Nothas, F. Andrejevsky, Denis Zsigmondy and Zakhar Bron amongst others. He has appeared in numerous radio and TV broadcasts and plays chamber music with members of the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He is on the jury of different international competitions and has been invited to several international music festivals. Umbreit was a teacher for almost ten years at the Musikhochschule in Munich and at the same time a lecturer for chamber music and piano accompaniment at the Richard Strauss Conservatory. Since 2008 he has been a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. As the long-serving managing director of the Richard-Strauss-Gesellschaft, he was made an honorary member of the board in 2009. In May 2011, the Bavarian Minister of Culture appointed Johannes Umbreit an honorary professor of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München on the suggestion of its academic senate.
Pascal Rogé (Fingering)
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