Piano Quartet in E major (Saint-Saëns)
The
Background
Instead of publishing the work, Saint-Saëns donated the manuscript, with others, to the library of the
It is unknown why the composer left this work unpublished despite having performed it.[1] Silvertrust speculated in his article that it was because in the 1850s chamber music was hard to publish in France due to the interest in operas and that by the 1870s the work, which shows signs that the composer was inspired by Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, was too German sounding to publish in France following the Franco-Prussian War.[2] It is also possible that Saint-Saëns was reluctant to present the work to a Parisian audience that was, at the time, sceptical of music by contemporary French composers.[4]
Structure
The quartet is structured in three movements:[2]
- Poco andante - Allegro vivace
- Andante
- Allegro con fuoco
References
- Notes
- ^ a b (Ratner 2005, p. 4)
- ^ a b c (Silvertrust 1996, p. 7)
- JSTOR 746723.
- ^ "Comment & Chronicle". 19th-Century Music. 19 (1): 113. 1995.
- Sources
- Ratner, Sabina Teller (2005). Saint-Saëns: Chamber Music (PDF) (CD). Hyperion Records. CDA67431/2.
- Silvertrust, R.H.R (Winter 1996). "Saint-Saëns: The Piano Quartets" (PDF). The Chamber Music Journal. 07 (4): 1 & 7. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
External links
- Javotte (20 February 2013). "Piano Quartet in E major". The Complete Works of Camille Saint-Saens (Blog).