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ABOUT THIS RELEASE
A seminal figure in the history of French Romantic music, Camille Saint-Saëns was also one of the greatest keyboard prodigies of the past two hundred years. Liszt referred to him as the greatest organist on earth. Over the course of more than forty years, Saint-Saëns wrote three sets of ingenious, groundbreaking piano études. His initial Six Études, Op. 52 were written in 1877, when Saint-Saëns was already a mature composer. No. 1 Prélude opens with exuberant, unrestrained virtuosity, and a "testing" of all registers of the keyboard. No. 3 Prelude and Fugue in F minor showcases one of Saint-Saëns' most central talents: writing keyboard music in the Baroque style, while still bringing original elements of structure, counterpoint and more Romantic textures to the fore. Saint-Saëns next set of etudes, Six Études, Op. 111, only arrived 22 years later. The concluding, brilliant Toccata is a transformation of the last movement of his Piano Concerto No. 5, a very difficult rondo that relentlessly explores many bravura techniques and textures. It serves as a fantastic culmination of the preceding études, in that it embeds so many of the techniques found in the first five études. In 1912, Saint-Saëns wrote the Six Études for the Left Hand Alone, Op. 135, for Madame Caroline de Serres, whom he often performed duo piano works with. These are very different in character, spirit and musical language from the preceding etudes. The Élégie is filled with great variety, invention and poignant lyricism. The concluding Gigue is a very effective closer, impishly fading out in its coda into the depths of the piano's register.
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