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SAINT-SAENS'S WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
Camille Saint-Saēns. Andante d'une sonate pour violon et piano en ut majeur (R deest); Sonate pour violon et piano en si bémol majeur (R 103); Sonate pour violon et piano (inachevée) en fa majeur (R 106); Sonate pour violon et piano no 1 en ré mineur, op. 75 (R 123); Sonate pour violon et piano no 2 en mi bémol majeur, op. 102 (R 130). Edited by Fabien Guilloux and François De Médicis. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2020. (œuvres instrumentales completes, Sér. III, Vol. 4) [Front matter in Fr., Eng., and Ger.: foreword, p. vii-xii; preface, p. xiii-lxv; documents, p. lxviii-lxxvi; score, p. 3-120; crit. rep. in Fr., p. 123-51. Cloth. ISMN 979-0-006-54154-6. €266 ($332.50).]
Camille Saint-Saēns was, during most of his lifetime, indisputably the most famous musician in France, a figure renowned both at home and abroad for his talents both as a composer and a pianist. Among the most prolific composers of his time, he contributed significant works across multiple genres and over a span of many decades. Yet for much of the twentieth century, SaintSaěns and his music attracted relatively little scholarly attention. That situation has thankfully changed over the past few decades, as growing interest in the rich and varied musical life of fin-desiecle France has resulted in increased focus on Saint-Saēns, with several new biographies in both English and French, a three-volume meticulouslyresearched catalog of his works (Sabina Teller Ratner, Camille Saint-Saēns, 1835- 1921: A Thematic Catalogue of his Complete Works, 3 vols. [Oxford: University of Oxford Press, 2002-]), a comprehensive collection of his numerous reviews, essays, and other writings on music and musicians (Marie-Gabrielle Soret, ed., Camille Saint-Saēns: Ecrits sur la musique et les musiciens, 1870-1921 [Paris: Vrin, 2012]) and, most recently, a critical edition of his approximately 360 instrumental works to be published in a total of thirty-nine volumes organized into four series: orchestral works, concertos, chamber works, and works for keyboard.
The present volume, containing the composer's three early works for violin and piano (published for the first time) and his two published violin sonatas, is the fourth to be released, following a volume devoted to the string quartets and two in the orchestral music series: Symphony no. 3 and the Symphonic Poems....