Saint-Saëns! (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room 4)

[@danielenot2093]

thank you Dave..if you ever write another of your "composer" books, you should consider Saint-Saens, it's a job for you!

[@markwolf1374]

Get in line, man. I’m hopeful he has a book on Claudia Cassidy first. 😊

[@christopherwilliams9270]

The good folks at Bru Zane have done wonderful work in bringing several of his non-Samson operas to light. Gil Rose has a new Henry VIII. Would love to hear your take. Immense amounts of wonderful music to discover.

[@jean-pierreissele7916]

Thank you a lot Dave! Even in France, we still have so much of his music to (re)discover! Only a little observation: in the DGG Barenboim' "Organ Symphony", Gaston Litaize was playing the beautiful organ of the Chartres cathedral.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That's right! Thanks for correcting. I was thinking of the horrible Karajan recording. The Chartres instrument is another world entirely.

[@WesSmith-m6i]

Thank you so much, Dave. I really enjoyed the journey through Saint-Saens Land. Wesley

[@bbailey7818]

Only two of Saint-Saens' operas still need professional recordings--Etienne Marcel and L'Ancetre.(Fredegonde doesn't count since he merely finished an opera by Guiraud.)

[@dizwell]

It has been said that Saint-Saëns was a bit like Benjamin Britten: technically brilliant, with the technical brilliance making him somehow musically 'suspect', whatever that means. Curious then that Saint-Saëns went through the same post-death purgatory of dismissal-as-a-lightweight that afflicted the likes of Vaughan Williams, but Britten didn't (or hasn't: I suppose there's still time).

[@jaykauffman4775]

Samson et Dalila is a wonderful opera