Camille Saint-Saëns

Œuvres pour violon et piano (1): Sonates pour violon et piano

The catalogue of the works of Camille Saint-Saëns includes four sonatas and a single movement for violin and piano, written over a large part of the composer's life. Three works from his youth are published here for the first time; the 'Andante' of a Sonata for Violin and Piano in C major dating from 1841/1842, the Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat major, dated 1842 - Saint-Saëns was then six years old -, and the unfinished Sonata for Piano and Violin in F major dating from around 1850/1851 when Saint-Saëns was fifteen years old. The two sonatas for violin and piano he subsequently composed were published and performed in public during his lifetime; the Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1 in D minor, op. 75 (1885) and the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in E-flat major, op. 102 (1896). These works found their way into the repertoire of leading violinists worldwide soon after their creation.

In Saint-Saëns's own opinion, the opp. 75 and 102 sonatas are strongly contrasted in their character: the first being an effectively brilliant, technically quite sophisticated work for the concert hall, the second, however, pure chamber music. The first probably inspired the fictitious composer Vinteuil's Sonata from Proust's novel 'À la recherche du temps perdu' (In Search of Lost Time) - the two editors pursue this trail and many others in their extensive Preface.

For their recording of Saint-Saëns's complete works for violin and piano, the formidable duo Fanny Clamargirand and Vanya Cohen played from this new edition published in the series 'Œuvres instrumentales complètes'.