Podcast: Imposing imagery: Saint-Saëns’ symphonic poems. December 1, 2017
Camille Saint-Saëns’ life stretched from 1835 to 1921, book-ended by Mendelssohn and Stravinsky, a witness to global conflict, and underscored by a unerring belief in the importance of melody and form, possibly out of fashion, but in the vanguard of impeccable craftsmanship. The composer’s symphonic poems are dizzying in their orchestral colour and imagery. Raymond Bisha presents the first volume in a complete edition of Saint-Saëns’ works in the genre: punishment for inadvertent murder, Greek gods, virtue vying with pleasure, chariots, spinning-wheels and a chorus-line of skeletons are all brought to life by the composer in illuminating interpretations by Jun Märkl and the Orchestre National de Lille.
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