A
lautomne de 1853, un journal
anglais notait que la Socit
Sainte-Ccile de Paris venait de
rvler avec grand succs une symphonie
dun auteur anonyme qui se rvla tre
Charles-Camille Saint-Sans, g de 18
ans et dj estim comme pianiste au
jeu brillant, lgant et un peu froid. Que
le correspondant anglais ait connu le tout
jeune Saint-Sans prouve la notorit
vite acquise au-del des frontires ; quil
soit surpris de dcouvrir ses talents de
compositeur relve de ltonnement
habituel de lpoque devant cette
combinaison de dons qui semblent mal
accoupls. Liszt neut-il pas souffrir de
cette dichotomie entre linterprte et le
compositeur ? Mais la dfinition du jeu de
Saint-Sans devait le poursuivre tout au
long de sa carrire, un peu comme sil tait
anachronique de ne pas tre le virtuose
flamboyant qui foudroie les auditeurs non
sans malmener quelque peu les partitions
soit par des transcriptions, paraphrases et
variations acrobatiques pour dmontrer
ses capacits digitales, soit par irrespect
du texte et du style de luvre originale.
Clara Schumann ne se plaignit-elle pas
que Liszt jouait le Concerto pour piano de
son poux avec un effroyable mauvais
got ? Rien de tel chez Saint-Sans :
cest la nettet du jeu et la concision du
discours qui russissent convaincre
et charmer les auditeurs. Marcel Proust
y succomba en coutant le Concerto en
r mineur de Mozart. En 1901, le grand
pdagogue Isidore Philipp rsuma fort
bien les qualits du jeu de Saint- Sans :
Il est impossible de jouer du piano avec
plus de hardiesse et de sret, avec plus
de calme et dautorit, plus desprit, de
rythme, de vie, de naturel. Les textes les
plus audacieux, les plus ardus, conservent
sous ses doigts dacier une transparente
clart. Sa sonorit se plie aux nuances
les plus dlicates. Sa personnalit plutt
tempre quexubrante sidentifie aussi
bien avec les classiques quavec les
modernes, et son interprtation de tel
concerto de Mozart ou de telle fantaisie de
Liszt sont des pures merveilles de ciselure
pianistique. Il est rvlateur que Philipp
voque Mozart et Liszt. On pourrait
ajouter Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn,
Faur... et Rameau parmi les autres
compositeurs qui ont bnfici des soins
du pianiste mticuleux. Car Saint-Sans
ne sest pas limit linterprtation de ses
propres uvres. Certes elles forment un
ensemble impressionnant, mais ce nest
que la partie visible, pour le mlomane
moderne, dun iceberg pianistique
constitu aussi par les transcriptions et
paraphrases imagines par Saint-Sans
partir duvres dautres musiciens et par
les transcriptions de ses propres ouvrages
ralises par lui-mme ou par des
amis. Lorsque le transcripteur et lami
se confondent en la personne de Liszt, le
dbat aussitt slve au plus haut niveau.
-1-
Aussi est-il particulirement heureux
que le prsent programme ait song
explorer les talents du compositeur, du
transcripteur et du transcrit, facettes
diverses dun mme univers : celui du
piano lpoque du Second Empire et de
la Troisime Rpublique naissante.
LEtude en forme de valse, compose en
1877 et ddie Marie Jall, termine le
premier cahier des Six Etudes pour le piano
op. 52. Vritable somme de difficults
pianistiques tierces, quartes, sixtes,
octaves, arpges et gammes tronqus
jets profusion dans un tempo vif ,
luvre se veut plus valse imaginaire
que pice danser. Seule la main gauche
semble rappeler parfois le rythme
typique trois temps pour aussitt laisser
la place au tourbillon des traits chargs
de traduire le tournoiement sinueux
et frntique en lequel semble stre
reconnue la socit de la Belle poque
car lEtude eut un succs considrable et
figura au rpertoire de tous les pianistes
fin de sicle. Lauteur y avait-il gliss
une touche dhumour narquois pour
dmontrer ce que pouvait faire un
virtuose ? Ce nest pas impossible... Cest
en tout cas aux apprentis-virtuoses que
fut destin lAllegro appassionnato op.
70 compos en 1884 pour les concours
du Conservatoire. LEtude avait rvl
les doigts dacier voqus par Philipp ;
cest la ciselure pianistique que se
-2-
rfre cet Allegro, pice tripartite dont
la partie centrale, de structure souple et
de caractre plus lyrique, avec un thme
confi aux pouces des deux mains dans le
registre mdium du clavier, est encadre
par deux volets de caractre volubile
et emport, un peu la manire dun
Mendelssohn rcrit avec les harmonies
des annes 1880.
Quant la pice suivante, Le Cygne,
elle devait avoir une histoire agite.
Incorpore dans Le Carnaval des animaux
compos en 1886, puis dtache
de lensemble pour faire plaisir au
violoncelliste Charles-Joseph Lebouc qui
avait eu lhonneur de crer le Carnaval
chez lui pour le Mardi-Gras, cette brve
page devait connatre un succs stupfiant
ds sa publication en 1887. Saint-Sans
fut-il agac par ce succs transformant
luvre en rengaine ? Craignit-il quon
ne le prit pour un musicien peu srieux
alors que se rpandait sa majestueuse
Symphonie avec orgue compose la
mme poque ? Toujours est-il que,
sil en autorisa quelques excutions,
il interdit la publication du Carnaval
jusqu sa mort (luvre entire ne fut
en effet dite par Durand quen 1922).
Pendant ce temps, Le Cygne avait subi
tous les travestissements instrumentaux
possibles. Lune des transcriptions les
plus fidles est celle excute sur le
prsent disque. Procure par Emile
Hoskier, banquier de son tat, pianiste-
compositeur amateur, il dut la raliser
avec laide de sa fille Anna, lune des rares
lves de Saint-Sans. Devenue comtesse
de Guitaut, elle devait entretenir une
longue correspondance avec son matre,
devenu un ami et prouvant que, par del
un caractre vif, emport, voire colreux,
prt dcocher une flche acre, il
pouvait, par sa discrtion et sa sensibilit,
nouer dindfectibles amitis. Cette
pice clbre voque loiseau glissant
imperceptiblement sur les eaux calmes
dun lac, au crpuscule dune journe qui
sapaise. Reprise par Anna Pavlova en
1905, avec une chorgraphie de Michel
Fokine, sous le titre de La mort du cygne,
luvre devait tre dtourne de sa vraie
signification, selon Saint-Sans. Mais
elle devait, du mme coup, acqurir une
audience populaire et universelle.
Rien de tel avec la transcription par
Saint-Sans lui-mme, en 1878, de cette
petite page de Schumann Abendlied,
extrait de lop. 85 originellement pour
piano quatre mains. Serait-ce une
vocation des annes 1860 lorsque,
professeur lEcole Niedermeyer, il jouait
ses lves les uvres inconnues ou
discutes de Schumann et de Liszt, entre
autres ? Voulut-il marquer linfluence
incontestable de Schuman sur sa propre
manire dcrire, alors quon le taxe
toujours de classique ? Les raisons de
cet ajustement pour piano deux mains
restent mystrieuses.
Trs claires, au contraire, sont les
motivations de larrangement pour piano
seul du 1er mouvement du 3me Concerto
pour piano en mi b majeur ; les concours
du Conservatoire, encore, la demande
de Faur en 1913 ; mais le temps a
manqu pour crire une pice nouvelle.
Do la reprise du Concerto crit en 1869
et difficilement accept sa cration
cause de ses audaces harmoniques. La
suppression de lorchestre fait peut-tre
perdre au mouvement le ct alpestreque
Saint-Sans avait cherch traduire au
dbut de luvre : ruissellement de
cascades dans les montagnes, crivit-il,
Mais lAllegro respectant pratiquement le
texte pianistique de ce 1er mouvement,
y gagne un clat figurant, partag entre
des moments de tension pianistique
intense et de dtente potique cre par
la recherche harmonique, correspondant
dailleurs aux deux cadences insres
dans le concerto initial.
Retour des uvres originales avec les
trois Mazurkas et la Gavotte en ut mineur.
La 1re Mazurka en sol mineur op. 21 date
de 1862. Elle est sans doute la plus proche
des mazurkas de Chopin, modles dont
sest inspir Saint-Sans qui ne pardonna
jamais son matre Stamaty de lui avoir
interdit de rencontrer Chopin, premire
-3-
idole du petit prodige Saint-Sans dans
les annes 1840. La 2me Mazurka op. 24,
galement en sol mineur, fut compose en
1871. Elle scarte davantage, semble-t-il,
de la mazurka traditionnelle : ct du
nom de Chopin, ne pourrait-on voquer
celui de Grieg par exemple ? Enfin la 3me
Mazurka en si mineur op. 66, acheve en
novembre 1882, ne formerait-elle pas le
lien entre lharmonie de Chopin et celle de
Faur avec lpisode central introduisant un
instant de rverie dans cette pice brillante
qui vise peut-tre plus au concert quau
salon, la diffrence de la 1re Mazurka ?
La Gavotte en ut mineur op. 23 fut
dabord destine servir dentracte
pour un tableau du Timbre dargent,
opra auquel travaillait Saint-Sans en
1871. Finalement, elle fut publie en
1872 comme pice isole. Pastiche dune
gavotte du XVIIIe sicle, on y remarquera
le Trio central utilisant toute ltendue du
clavier avec les doubles pdales graves
et aigus.
Enfin, nouveaut absolue pour le disque,
ltonnante transcription par Liszt
de la Danse macabre de Saint-Sans.
Ecrite dabord comme mlodie avec
accompagnement de piano en aot 1872,
puis transforme en pome symphonique
en octobre 1874, la cration de luvre
au concert Colonne le 24 janvier 1875
dclencha des mouvements divers, pour
-4-
aboutir au vritable chahut organis au
Concert Pasdeloup du 24 octobre suivant.
Trop moderne, semblait-il ! Louvrage
suscita lenthousiasme de Liszt qui
dclara quune bacchanale aussi russie
donnait envie dy participer. Il devait
en faire une transcription-paraphrase
en 1876, respectant lordonnancement
des pisodes de la version originale
mais y introduisant quelques lments
nouveaux comme le dveloppement du
rle du mntrier infernal au dbut de
luvre, aprs les douze coups de minuit,
comme lpoustouflante cadence qui suit
le chant du coq et la saisissante coda finale
qui fait vanouir luvre dans le silence des
tombeaux referms. Encore Liszt sexcusa-
t-il, en envoyant sa transcription Saint-
Sans en octobre 1876, de son inhabilet
rduire au piano le merveilleux coloris de
la partition. A limpossible nul nest tenu.
Jouer de lorchestre sur le piano nest
encore donn personne. Nanmoins il
faut toujours tendre vers lIdal travers
toutes les formes plus ou moins revches
et insuffisantes. La vie et lart ne sont bons
qu cela, ce me semble. Un tel idal
ne serait-il pas de nature rconcilier
crateurs et interprtes dont la collusion
en un mme personnage semblait quelque
peu surprenante au critique anglais
voqu en tte de cette notice ?
Yves Grard
*
I
n the autumn of 1853, an English
newspaper noted that the Sainte-
Cecile Society of Paris had just
revealed with great success a symphony
of an anonymous author who turned
out to be Charles-Camille Saint-Sans,
aged 18, and already esteemed a pianist
with a brilliant touch, lgant, although
a little cold. The fact that the English
correspondant knew of the young Saint-
Sans proves the reputation which he
had rapidly gained even outside France;
that he should have been surprised at
his talents as composer springs from the
astonishment always accorded at that
time to a combination of apparently very
dissimilar gifts. Was not Liszt to suffer
from this dichotomy between interpreter
and composer? This definition of Saint-
Sanss piano playing was to pursue
him all his life, almost as if it were
anachronistic not to be the fiery virtuoso
who amazed audiences, often playing
around with scores either by transcription
or paraphrase or acrobatic variation, in
order to show off his digital capacities
or by lack of respect for the text and the
style of the original work. Did not Clara
Schumann complain that Liszt played
her husbands piano Concerto with
dreadfully bad taste? None of the sort
with Saint-Sans whose clarity of sound
and concise discourse succeeded in
convincing and charming the audiences.
Marcel Proust succombed in listening to
-5-
the Mozart D minor Concerto. In 1901 the
great teacher Isidore Philipp summed up
most adequately the qualities of Saint-
Sans piano playing: - it is impossible
to play the piano with more strength and
certainty, with more calm and authority;
more spirit or rhythm, life or naturalness.
The most audacious and arduous texts
maintain a transparent clarity under his
iron fingers. His sound allows the most
delicate nuances. His personality, more
temperate than exuberant, can identify
just as well with the classics as with
the modems, and his interprtations of
such a Mozart concerto or such a Liszt
fantasy are pure marvels of pianistic
sculpture. We could add Beethoven,
Chopin, Mendelsohn, Faur... and
Rameau amongst the other composers
who benefitted from the cares of the
meticulous pianist. For, Saint-Sans did
not limit him- self to the interprtation
of his own works. It is certain that they
present an impressive ensemble, but
it is only the visible part, for a modem
music-lover, of a pianistic iceberg
equally constitued by transcriptions and
paraphrase imagined by Saint-Sans
based on the work of other musicians,
and by the transcriptions of his own
works realized by himself or by his
friends. When the transcriber and the
friend get mixed up in the person of
Liszt, the debate becomes immediately of
the highest level. Thus, it is particularly
pertinent that the programme of this
record thought of exploring the talent
of composer, transcriber and composer
transcribed by others; diverse facets
ot the same universe: that of the piano
during the second Empire and the birth
of the Third Republic.
The Study in Waltz form, composed in
1877 and dedicated to Marie Jall, finishes
off the notebook of the Six Studies for Piano
Op. 52. It gathers together many pianistic
difficulties thirds, fourths, sixths,
octaves, arpeggios and scales profusely
thrown into lively tempos , the work
is more intended as an imaginary waltz
rather than a piece to dance to. Only the
left hand, from time to time, reminds us
of the typical three time, immediately to
disappear leaving room for the whirpool
of highlycharged figures, as if to translate
the sinuous turnings in which we can
recognise the Belle Epoque, for the
Study was considerably successful and
figured in the repertoire of ail the turn
of the century pianists. Is there a touch
of sly humour in the piece, the author
showing what a virtuoso can do ? It is
not out of the question... In any case the
Allegro appassionato Op. 70 composed
in 1884 was destined for the apprentice
virtuosos as a piece for conservatoire
competitions. The Study had revealed
the iron fingers mentioned by Philipp;
it is to the pianistic sculpture that this
-6-
Allegro refers, a piece in three sections
whose central part, with a supple
structure and a more lyrical character,
with a theme confided to the thumbs of
the two hands in the medium register
of the keyboard, is framed by two light
talkative sections, a little bit like some
sort of Mendelsohn rewritten in the
harmonies of the 1880s.
As for the piece which follows, The Swan,
it was to have had an agitated history
behind it. Incorporated in the Carnival of
the Animals composed in 1886, and then
detached from the whole to please the
cellist Charles-Joseph Lebouc who had
the honour of performing the Carnival
in his home for Mardi-Gras, this short
page was to be extraordinarily successful
as soon as its publication in 1887. Was
Saint-Sans annoyed at the success of
this work which risked perhaps his
reputation as a serious musician whilst
his majestuous Symphony with organ was
being played, composed at the same
time? It remains that, even if he allowed
a few performances, he was to forbid
the publication of the Carnival till his
death (indeed, the entire work was only
published in 1922 by Durand). At this
same period The Swan had undergone ail
the possible instrumental variations. One
of the most faithful transcriptions is the
one performed on this record. Procured
by Emile Hoskier, banker and amateur
pianist-composer, he was to realize it
with the help of his daughter Anna,
one of Saint-Sanss few pupils. She
was to become the Countess de Guitaut
and maintain a long correspondance
with her teacher, who had become a
friend, just to prove that even with
his lively and even irritable character,
he was capable by his discretion and
sensitivity of creating strong bonds of
friendship. This famous piece evokes
the bird gliding imperceptibly along
the calm waters of a lake at dusk. Re-
used by Anna Pavlova in 1905, with a
choreography by Michel Fokine, under
the title The Death of the Swan, for Saint-
Sans the piece was to lose its true
meaning, but at the same time it was to
gain universal popularity.
Nothing of the kind with Saint-
Sanss transcription, in 1878, of the
little Abendlied Op. 85 by Schumann,
originally for four hands on piano. Could
this be an evocation of the 1860s, when,
as teacher at the Niedermeyer school,
he played works to his pupils either
unknown or cast in doubt by Schumann
and Liszt amongst others? Did he want
to mark the incontravertible influence
that Schumann had had on his own way
of writing... he, who was always being
accused of being classical? The reason
for this readaptation for two hands is
mysterious.
-7-
On the other hand the reasons are very
clear for his arrangement for piano solo
of the first movement of the 3rd piano
Concerto in E flat Major: conservatoire
competitions yet again, at Faurs request
in 1913; at a moment when there was not
enough time to write an entirely original
piece. And hence the re-adoption of the
Concerto written in 1869 and received
with difficulty at its creation because
of its audacious harmonies. The
suppression of the orchestra perhaps
gets rid of the alpine character that
Saint-Sans had tried to translate at the
beginning of the work: the whispering
of waterfalls in the mountains he wrote.
However, the Allegro which respects the
piano text of the original first movement
gains a certain attack, divided between
moments of intense pianistic tension and
poetic pauses created by the harmonic
research, corresponding, moreover, to
the two cadences of the initial concerto.
Return to the original works with the 3
Mazurkas and the Gavotte in C minor. The
1rst Mazurka in G minor Op. 21 dates
back to 1862. It is without doubt the
closest to the Chopin Mazurkas, models
which had inspired Saint-Sans, who
had never forgiven his teacher Stamaty,
who had forbidden his meeting Chopin,
the first of the infant prodigys idols, in
the 1840s. The 2nd Mazurka, Op. 24, also
in G minor, was composed in 1871. It is
apparently different from the traditional
mazurka: alongside Chopins name
couldnt we add Griegs for example?
Lastly, the 3rd Mazurka Op. 66, in B
minor, finished in November 1882, would
perhaps breach the gap between the
harmonies of Chopin and Faur with the
central episode introducing a moment of
reverie in this brilliant piece which aims
more at the concert hall than the salon...
a diffrence with the first Mazurka.
The Gavotte in C minor, Op. 23, was first
of all destined to serve as an interval for a
tableau from The Timbre dargent an opera
which Saint-Sans had been working on
since 1871. It was finally published in
1872 as a separate piece. As a pastiche of
the 18th century Gavotte, we can observe
the central Trio using the whole breadth
of the keyboard with double soft and
loud pedals.
Lastly, an absolute novelty for the
recording, is the astonishing Liszt
transcription of Saint-Sanss Danse
Macabre written, first of all, as a melody
with piano accompaniment in August
1872, and then transformed into a
symphonic poem in october 1874, it was
first performed in a Colonne concert on
the 24th of January 1875 and unleashed
diverse reactions which were to culminate
in the organized uproar at the Pasdeloup
concert of the following 24th of October.
-8-
It appears that it was too modern! The
work enthused Liszt who declared that
such a successful bacchanalian festival
made one want to participate in it. He
was to write a transcription-paraphrase
in 1876, respecting the recommendations
for the episodes of the original piece, but
introducing some new elements in the
development of the infernal minstrel, at
the beginning of the work after the twelve
strokes of midnight, like the astonishing
cadence which follows the cocks cry, and
the gripping final coda which sends the
piece off to die in the silence of the resealed
tombs. Even so, Liszt apologized, when
he sent his transcription to Saint-Sans
in October 1876, for his inaptitude to
reduce the marvellous colors of the score
to the keyboard. The impossible remains
impossible. Play the orchestra on the
piano is given to no man. Nevertheless,
we should aim for the Ideal across all
the more or less insufficient forms. Life
and art, it seems to me, are only good
for that. Such an Ideal is surely a step
towards reconciling the composer and
the interpreter whose collusion seemed
somewhat surprising to that English
critic mentioned at the beginning of this
article.
Yves Grard
(translated by Nigel Coastes)
*