Camille Saint Saëns - 6 Études, Op. 52 (1877)

Therapist: Saint-Saëns is dead. He can’t hurt you. Saint-Saëns:

[@ekkuseu3164]

HAHAHAHAHA

[@azureNotsure]

Saint-Saëns doesn’t care about your fingers. No matter what you play

[@stacia6678]

Especially that second etude… my fingers would die from trying to play that

[@aakarshitsingh1535]

LOL

[@japans_tree6139]

I’ve seen you at another piano channel

[@PointyTailofSatan]

I'm thinking Saint-Saëns got a deal on black ink. lol

[@xuew]

I use pencil lol.

[@ferminsalaberri]

XDXDXDXD hilarious!

[@mekhribanmamedova1757]

The best music joke I have heard in years ☺️👌

[@morbiusfan3176]

Hey I saw you in a comment section of rousseau's performance of rachmaninoff's prelude in c# minor

[@PointyTailofSatan]

@@morbiusfan3176 Ya, although I prefer the Db Minor version.

[@bloubear2557]

These are suddenly much scarier than chopin's

[@jbw53191]

Number 2 is brilliant. Being able to voice notes like that is what separates true pianists from simple keyboard players

[@backmax]

Duchable is the cleanest pianist alive he never miss a note thats unheard of.

[@wiggityp]

That No. 2 is super cool, that's damn tough to isolate notes in big chords like that. This is a probably an effective etude.

[@Speleobuff]

It's a voicing etude. And an excellent one at that. Chopin has several voicing etudes, and they're gorgeous, but SS's No. 2 is more deliberately didactic, though by no means bereft of beauty.

[@onajourneytosomewherek8242]

i read once that Horowitz would improvise like this as a warm up before concerts.

[@Roescoe]

@@Speleobuff yeah I'm going to use it to practice that technique, I find the pieces that aren't didactic suck me in and then leave me stuck. I need the "boring" one to get it right.

[@lerippletoe6893]

Alkan has one that's like that called Posement etude 11 from his major keys etudes

[@Bulbophile]

similar to a Chopin/Moscheles etude, when played properly

[@mumupipi8414]

These etudes are SO underrated.

[@AsrielKujo]

They are not, they are standard conservatory etudes here in italy

[@CLASSICALFAN100]

I see **EVERYWHERE** that this or that is "underrated", which is *SO* overrated...

[@sneddypie]

@@AsrielKujo but italy doesnt exist, its a myth pushed by the lizard people

[@evslol1153]

@@AsrielKujo wow really?

[@AsrielKujo]

@@evslol1153 yep they are

[@rattywoof5259]

OMG No 4 with the simultaneous triple and duple time - how can anyone play that so effortlessly?

[@MAnna-tq9hg]

This was my favorite etude of all time 🤭 (after all the Cherny torture :)) )

[@chad4149]

the triplet one was amazing.

[@Speleobuff]

Agreed!

[@isaacskey39]

No one: Saint-Saëns: (writing first etude) *I LIKE DEMISEMIQUAVERS*

[@justaharmlesspotato69]

Isaac Skey Lmao

[@user-pf5nb9tu6n]

Charlemagne Mozart 😂

[@MKA829]

1 - Prélude - 0:00 2 - Pour l' indépendance des doigts - 2:10 3 - Prélude et fugue en Fa mineur - 4:38 6:40 4 - Étude de rythme - 8:18 5 - Prélude et fugue en La majeur - 10:42 12:43 6 - En forme de valse - 16:35

[@NoahJohnson1810]

It's in the description haha

[@MKA829]

Noah Johnson it is now :-)

[@NoahJohnson1810]

Tristan Ménard ahhh got ya ;) that happened to me once and it was annoying. Thanks for the times

[@terryss95]

Noah Johnson You can' t click on the time stamps in the description.

[@bennyksmusicalworld]

I love how Rene Duchable doesn’t get a NOTE wrong. The Etudes just sound astonishing. Good for listening while suffering from enteritis, it just heals the mind and makes me calm, especially the fugues.

[@owenmcgee8496]

...and sometimes I experience a seemingly undeniable and extraordinarily clear thought that Camille Saint Saens was the most talented human being who ever lived...

[@onecello9577]

and that, my friend, is what you call an EPIPHANY

[@wotan9630]

In all the years (75) that I have been listening to "classical" piano I have never heard these etudes before and I am absolutely astounded. I thought I knew most is SSs music but I have just discovered these 6. How any pianist could play them like this does not seem humanly possible. I followed the scores and I felt absolutely exhausted and I was only reading!! Some of you seem to know them fairly well, I hope to say that, eventually I will. He used to say that melodies came to him like apples falling from the trees. He certainly had bumper harvests!

[@albicortella2714]

I'm 66 not too far behind ..

[@tommax26]

Haha,,, 74 here :)

[@pawelpap9]

Karel Hannon coming from a junior (62): extremely impressed by these etudes. Just following the pictures makes my head spin, sheer roller coaster!

[@archerponty5289]

78 here and the same - Ive been listening to (and playing) classical music all my conscious life and I never heard these before.

[@charlesbickford5167]

70 here & a complete SS freak for the last 35. You should here Darre play these; a bit more subtle & faster. Camille was the king of speed-piano.

[@harryandruschak2843]

Well well...another work I have never heard before, and I am age 71. Thank you for uploading this treat :)

[@elijahshabazz1806]

that second piece is genius, melody accent notes within chords, but this is a little more challenging. Instead of accenting the melody high note, your doing all with the chord almost. I've never seen or hard a piece quite like it.

[@wogeel224]

It´s similar to Alkan´s op 35 no 11 "Posément", one of my favourite pieces.

[@milancampestre8243]

Elijah Shabazz Guess what the title means in French? "For the fingers independancy" ahahah !

[@elijahshabazz1806]

Milan Campestre You yea that's interesting, I be doing exercises for accents in chords. I'm pretty good at it now but a few years ago I wasn't the best at all, nowhere near.

[@nimrodshefer3649]

@@wogeel224 well he knew alkan also the first prelude of alkan uses this a litel

[@johannsebastienbach]

Thats how i felt it, its a genius work

[@jackcurley1591]

The f minor prelude and fugue is freaking awesome! Definitely need to learn it some day

[@seanbutler8122]

WOW!!!! Saint-Saëns is underrated as hell!!!!

[@ericwang9686]

Camille Saint Saëns wrote some beautifully music. Truly a master composer.

[@oldrichcepelka296]

Stunning Etudes -. especially 1, 2 and 6. Ultramodern and super heavy.

[@musiclover148]

I've never seen and heard anything like #2. That must be very difficult, but very useful. I try to do that with simple chords, voicing from note to note within the chords, as part of my warm-ups for dynamic touch, which are just as important as other kinds of warm-up.

[@steveegallo3384]

@musiclover148 -- BRAVO from Acapulco!

[@citizent6999]

After nearly 30 years of selling classical print music nobody has ever ordered a copy of this!! It's absurdly difficult in places - and so enjoyable to the ears.

[@carryfreak5059]

I will buy a copy

[@sadudas11]

The polyrhythm etude was super cool. Interesting he wrote out the same rhythm different ways.

[@chad4149]

they were all good.the fugue one after shows his musical genius

[@stephenmullany794]

This was the incredible technical standard at the Paris Conservatory. Anyone who could make this blizzard of notes sound like music was truly a “finished musician.”

[@benjaminmarks8765]

Just when I think Ive determined the style of saint saens, I find a whole new feeling in his music. So much content, so much variety under one composer. I found him first in danse macabre, them his carnival of the animals... I recommend saens 3 fugues... the themes are more clearly defined than even bach. Defenitely an underrated composer.

[@rowanwild8445]

For me his masterpiece is his eyptian concerto (no5), you should really check this hidden gem of mankind

[@doudoulenud6832]

Camille Saint-Saens had an extraordinary gift to write music that gives you goosebumps.

[@richardwhitehouse8762]

Blimey, just looking at the first page of the first etude made my fingers ache. The only one I knew at all was the Valse, which I remember seeing Cecile Ousset play on the tv. She romped through it, making it look and sound like the easiest thing in the world. Both she and M Duchable show us that French piano playing has definitely something going for it, even if it's worlds away from the mighty Russians. As the world continues to shrink and students cross continents during their studies, national schools will continue to die out and we will be left with homogenisaton, where everyone sounds the same. It has already happened, pretty much, with singing. Diversity may be bad for marketing but it certainly makes the world a more interesting place. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@marksmith3947]

Wonderful. I'm really astonished. I'll add thus to the list of pieces I will never ever try to play or read through.

[@stephenirvine7445]

My hands and forearms hurt just watching and imagining playing this. I love it.

[@zyxefalc0n505]

i was finding hard piano pieces to learn then this came up and i thought maybe i could but that double note part made me change my mind

[@XmatigX]

Spectacular technique. Truly. Also, Saint Saëns was a genius. Every one of these is incredibly challenging in a very different way.

[@jackcurley1591]

5:04 - 5:15 Chopin etude op 25 no 12

[@chezbe]

I think similar

[@hosshoss777]

here is another epic career that I have never even heard a whisper of before, and this guy was epic in his time. anyway

[@redvine1105]

Stellar pianist

[@stephanbrucebecker7268]

His music is sooo wonderful!

[@alcyonecrucis]

Hated the waltz at first... now I think it's completely magnificent!

[@simon7342]

I seem to remember reading a long time ago (Lives of the Great Pianists or Composers, maybe) that at the age of 14 Saint-Saens would give piano recitals where he would offer to play from memory any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Very impressive child prodigy.

[@MikeDial]

All respect to classical pianists. Wow.

[@arcana830]

I would have loved him as my piano and composition teacher. What a wizard!

[@biancapanizza]

Io da semplice appassionata di musica classica, non pianista e neppure musicologa, ho riprodotto e ingrandito in cartaceo la foto di quest'uomo meraviglioso, quella dove sorride sotto i baffi, e l'ho appesa in salotto

[@otonanoC]

Out of fricking nowhere : a fugue.

[@TaylorWinfrey]

Gotta keep ya on your toes

[@DanieleMO77]

and what a fugue!

[@ulengrau6357]

Which is incredible, because any fugue by Bach in 4-5 voices is already an etude.

[@stapler942]

Two no less.

[@erika6651]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Saint Saens!

[@norwalltino]

Absolutely fantastic! He's among the greatest artists ever. A genius.

[@Assassunn]

Duchable or Saint-Saëns ? Both I guess!

[@danielhoover1080]

Thank you, Bartje Bartmans. Dummy me had no idea Saint-Saens wrote etudes.

[@dustinlaferney3160]

Very worthwhile listening to this set of etudes. Love how this channel provides the scores. I was especially impressed by the fuges. IMO the fuge is the highest form of musical science. To be able to compose a fuge and make it beautiful and enjoyable to listen to is a rare gift achieved by precious few high musical artists. Saint Saens is such an artist.

[@steveegallo3384]

......and STILL Great......Thanks from Acapulco!

[@steveegallo3384]

.....and even NOW....BRAVO Maestro Duchâble ......from Mexico City!

[@steveegallo3384]

......and once again.....back in Acapulco.......

[@silzai1]

Maravilloso. Este compositor es un superdotado, todo lo que conozco de él es virtuosismo y lirismo extremo.

[@wcsxwcsx]

Such graceful, effortless playing! Impressive!

[@guillaumemader437]

Waw, the Waltz étude totally astonished me, never heard such an atypical and brilliant one D: I don't listen pretty much Saint Saëns, but these Études are just amazing

[@cultofhercules]

Wow, this pianist is the real deal!

[@user-74652]

Honestly, these just look diabolical. I am totally downloading the sheet music so that I can torture myself with them.

[@senootetsumi]

なんていい曲なんだ！クラッシックの名曲も聴き漁ったな〜なんて慢心した時に初めて聞いてショックを受ける曲はいつもサン=サーンスだ。

[@giuliacantelli]

spaventosamente complesso complimenti

[@matthewswihart]

Thank you for posting this. What a great performance of pieces completely unfamiliar to me. You found real treasures here!

[@matthewmosca5002]

Thank you for posting the excellent performances of the Saint-Saens Etudes Op. 52- each is a wonderful gem!

[@valerieheinderyckx4506]

Magnifique Duchable ,Saint Saens.

I read someplace that S-S played with a dry as toast pre-Lisztian kind of finger technique and that his playing, while faultlessly perfect gave the impression of an exploding mechanical music box. I think that's an hysterical description, as in funny hysterical.

[@TaylorWinfrey]

These are incredible!

[@pablokalincausky8359]

Superb interpretation !!! Thank you so much for sharing...

[@paquinho12]

Incredible performance and studies!!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

My hands hurt just from looking at No. 3. This is insanity! And it sounds marvellous! I'd say that if you can play these adequately, you don't need to play Études any longer.

[@oneninetyfourXOcom]

My hand (Ouch!)

[@happypiano4810]

No, you upgrade to Alkan op 39 etudes.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

@@happypiano4810 Well, these are Etudes only in name. Or which specifcic technique exactly is anyone going to practice specifically by playing the opening movement of the Concert for Solo Piano? ;)

[@happypiano4810]

@@Quotenwagnerianer I’ve actually thought about these, and have answers for some. I think no. 8 is about tremolos (Even more broadly, accuracy of the outer fingers). Look at it, they are everywhere.

[@isaiahbaggett5014]

I don't think I've ever seen alternating 2 against 3 in the left hand alone....wow...0_o!

[@AbandonedMines11]

Boy, you sure do get your two against three’s worth in Étude No. 4!

[@Fivemonthslater1]

Saint-Saëns Etude 52/2 is great for this!

[@mkeysou812]

Given the more recent "discovery" of non-Liszt/Chopin romantic piano virtuosity, Saint-Saens is definitely due some attention. Personally I find his stuff much nicer to listen to than Alkan, who's all the rage at the moment.

[@123eldest]

Alkan is all the rage?! About bloody time.

[@i.palacios4002]

Yeah yes...

[@marcsmith7789]

Completely agree. Not only that but Alkan is extremely tiresome to listen to. He doesn't know when to drop something and just keeps repeating the same figurations or patterns over and over. The same rhythms pounding away. His work needs a hell of a lot of cuts and edits but I guess longwindedness was part of his style.

[@davidhughes3260]

Alkan is always "all the rage at the moment," that is, in the opinion of the few people who are actually interested in his work, usually young pianists who get into him as a kind of a cultish nerdy thing. Most people know that Alkan is second rate. I must say that Saint-Saens doesn't fare much better in these etudes IMO.

[@PianoScoreVids]

David Hughes cultish nerdy thing Lol.

[@younghwakim1725]

Excellent performence!!!!

[@1233-p5f]

The fugue in A was so beautiful!! Thank you for posting :)

[@slixver993]

Wow... This piano melody is very perfect and I will play this melody... It's so hard...

[@chutdigadut]

Kudos the the pianist! He really nailed these beasts of etudes! Highly underrated compositions and virtuosity!

[@babajideodusanya8843]

Probably computerised

[@snarf1504]

@@babajideodusanya8843 it's not. It's an actual performance. Samples can't get close to this sound due to the aggregate resonances.

[@babajideodusanya8843]

@@snarf1504 damn. I wouldn't be able to play this to 20% speed and accuracy even if I lived for a million years

[@LukeFaulkner]

Imagine trying to play 2:11 and not being able to span a 10th...

[@no-rq7fp]

@Peter Rabbit And how's that?

[@i9avici7a5]

I would probably omit the top note for that first beat... it’s not the melody and no one would miss it.

[@MoBoRoS]

16:37 The walse Ysaye took inspiration from to write this piece!!: Ysaye - Caprice d'apres l'Etude en forme de Valse de Saint-Saens Both brilliant!

[@thecrazybatz]

The entire thing is like “I bought the whole Piano, I’m gonna use the whole piano”

[@NicolasEjzenberg]

I have just discovered this nice stuff.

[@omarlo.3112]

Excellent, good job! And thank you very much!

[@mw11stuff]

Wow I didn't realise Saint-Saens could write such excellent counterpoint

[@biancapanizza]

Tutti i generi musicali sono trattati da quest'uomo eccezionale in modo tecnicamente superbo ed espressivo, era indubbiamente un genio

[@rogerknox9147]

If you know them very well, there are brief subtle allusions to Chopin Etudes in Saint-Saens No. 3 here: at 5:09 (Chopin Op. 10, No. 12) and at 5:24-5:35 (Chopin Op. 25, No. 1). There are other pieces where sneaky S.-S. did such things ...

[@timaliberec7790]

No. 6 - absolute meisterstück!

[@catherineloriotahahah6614]

quelle technique !!!

[@johannsebastienbach]

What a great composer his mastery of compositional techniques is unrivalled. When i look at his score abd compared to schubert forbexamole shubert didn master composition properly. Saint saenes works are so complex and harmonically challenging

[@rexy7399]

There is much vibe of Alkan's Op.35 here!

[@robert-skibelo]

Thanks for posting. The performer is achieving miracles, and if he doesn't always produce what the composer demands I wonder if that isn't because what the composer demands is not really possible: the pianissimos in the prelude to no. 5 for example, and the exact internal voicing demanded in no. 2. Maybe this performance is as close as anyone can get. I can't find a recording by Marc André Hamelin anywhere: if the composer's demands were realisable surely MAH would have recorded these pieces by now? Of course, he may also think that not all of them are musically interesting enough, particularly nos. 3, 4 and 5.

[@davidli6931]

The second etude is insane in a lot of sense.

[@bifeldman]

Very delightful and diverting.

[@marcovezzosi]

The theme in the A major fugue was maybe inspired by Bach's C major in WTC II? Parts of the inner voices sound similar, too.

[@usertyfoon]

Real genius!

[@southwestpiano]

technically clever and musically interesting compositions. excellent performance

[@clayburnett6530]

When I first heard the No. 2 etude I thought, is there someone else playing in the background lol then I realized he’s isolating different notes in the same chord 😢 Saint Saens isn’t screwing around

[@Ar1osssa]

10:42 Reminds me Ondine from Ravel's "Gaspard" 21:35 From that moment this reminds me "Islamey" by Balakirev

[@EmanuelGaldr]

Wow. These look surprisingly difficult!

[@Mahlerweber]

Wow...difficult stuff. Nice recording

[@janpaulwolff9310]

the fuge is amazing

[@tackontitan]

Okay but at 20:06 how the hell does he play those thirds that fast? Damn!!

[@diffugerenives]

It is a remarkable effect, but it's all white keys with the same fingering in each triplet group though the next one has black keys. It's kind of the same effect. Also think of the Brahms 2nd last movement. Many very fine professional pianists fake some of the double thirds there, playing the top notes. Hard to hear the difference.

[@OrangeSodaKing]

#2 sounds very inspired from Alkan's etude in B Major Op. 35, No. 11

[@celebrityinterviews3691]

this is so awesome

[@PaulHummerman]

More astonishing bangles from Saint-Saens' Aladdin's cave.

[@joequigley2505]

Handy , key. Nice. Play .. metre can mean technique .. lots of practices to do .. Well done.. shame these recitals are not pop anymore xo

[@i9avici7a5]

Oh no wonder I don’t regularly come across a recording of these... THIS IS HAAAAARD...

[@bammam5988]

The third one reminds me a lot of Chopin's Ocean Etude.

[@Shooshie128]

Does anyone know the process used by Rene Duchable to record these etudes? I mean, did he walk into the studio and just play them all and walk out with a finished master? Did he spend a week of takes on each one? Or did he play them into a Yamaha Disklavier (or any other reproducing piano) and edit them? The technology has existed to make perfect recordings like this since the early 1990s, if not before. That’s about when the Disklavier emerged. Previous player pianos suffered extreme disadvantages and were not capable of such perfection. I mean no disrespect to Duchable. If he was able to play these easily in the studio, he’s certainly a monster pianist. Some great pianists who could play near-perfect recitals could probably get these on tape (or into a computer file) in a few takes. Horowitz probably could have easily played them, but there would be many errors. He was just so good that you didn’t care about errors, as are many others, but when I hear a literally note-perfect recording of music this difficult without the payout of a Rachmaninoff concerto, I always wonder if it was done at a Disklavier. (Or similar) However it was done, it’s great. But if Duchable recorded these in one take, I take off my hat out of respect for his prowess.

[@johnstag1391]

Formidable!

[@ieuandavies9380]

favourite piece is the f minor fugue at 6:40