Fantaisie Op.124, for Violin and Harp
Camille Saint-Saëns’ career was acclaimed throughout the second half of the 19th century as France’s leading composer, by the 1900s he was widely viewed as a conservative and irrelevant figure. He did not help matters with intemperate attacks on such younger composers as Debussy, and Ravel was openly scornful of his dutiful attempts to write patriotic music during the 1914-18 war. However, although his inspiration grew ever more fitful, Saint-Saëns’ fluency and innate musicianship never failed him and until the end of his life he produced lyrical, melodious and beautifully-crafted music. And, on his own terms, he remained willing to experiment. This single-movement Fantaisie dates from 1907 and represents one of Saint-Saëns’ late attempts to clarify his musical idiom, showing his growing preference for the light sonorities of the harp over his own instrument, the piano. It is actually a more recent piece than Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro (1905), although its musical language is certainly more "old-fashioned". But it is salutary to recall that the following year, at the age of 73, this supposedly outmoded composer wrote the world’s first original film score, for "L’assassinat du Duc de Guise".
R. G. Bratby
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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