| Main Performers | Camille Saint Saens - organ |
| Performance Notes | "M. SAINT SAEN'S ORGAN RECITALS.
Mr. Saint Saens, the celebrated French composer, is giving some organ performances at the Albert-hall which well deserve the attention of musicians. The second recital of the series took place yesterday afternoon. The organ, the "queen of instruments" as it ised to be called, has within the last century lost much of the importance which it had in the time of Buxtchude and of the great Johan Sebastian Bach. The development of the moden orchestra was fatal to its supremacy as an accompanying instrument, and some of the largest concert-rooms in France and Germany are, or wre till lately, without it, the scores of the sacred works of Handel and Bach having to be re-written accordingly. In England the taste for Handel and sacred music generally had, fortunately, averted such a contingency, and it became for a long time the chied home of organs as well as organists; for, on the Continent, as the instrument itself grew rarer so did the virtuosi who devote dthemselves exclusively to it, and organ music became essentially condind to the churches. At the same times, modern composers fullya cknowledge the grandeur of the insturment/ Mendelssohn loved to play on the organ and to write for it, and so does the greatest pianist of the age, Franz Liszt. M. Saint Saens is well known to the London public as a composer and a virtuoso on the pianoforte, and his first concerto for that instrument, played by himself, earned much applause at Mr. Ganx's last concert, a little more than a week ago. But he has seldom been heard on the organ, although on that instruemtn he won his first laurels in Paris. For that, if for no other reason, amateurs should not miss the opportunity of hearing him on the splendid instrument at the Albert-hall, and of comparing his style with our own foremost organists, Dr. Stainer, Mr. Best, Mr. Pyne, of Manchester, and others. The chief item of M. Saint Saens's programme yesterday was Liszt's fantasia on the chorale from Meyerbeer's Prophet. It is a colossal work in more than one respect - colossal in conception, in length, and also in the difficulties it presents to the executant. The last named quality is at the same time the cause of its being heard very rarely; we believe, indeed, that M. Saint Saens is the only virtuoso, who includes the fantasia in his repertoire. By saying that he played the work to perfection we express our high opinion of the artist's technical capabilities. The programme included many other interesting pieces, a fantasia by M. Saint Saens himself being among the, The third and last recital of the series will take place on Friday afternoon."
(The Times, 12 May 1880, page 10) |