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In Reply to: RE: Well, as I was telling my wife yesterday. . . posted by Chris from Lafayette on April 01, 2012 at 18:55:40
that Saint-Saens' operas, the chief basis for his fame in his day, are mostly forgotten today, with the possible exception of Samson and Delilah. And he considered The Carnival of the Animals, probably his best-known piece today, such an embarrassment he would not allow it to be performed in public, except for Le Cygne.
I have no idea why Brahms has such an exalted reputation while Saint-Saens is, as you say, dismissed. Apparently they were both reasonably modest and dignified, and justifiably respected, musical eminences in their day.
Follow Ups:
"I have no idea why Brahms has such an exalted reputation while Saint-Saens is, as you say, dismissed."
Maybe because Brahms was about a hundred times better composer than Saint-Saens. That said, personally, I probably listen to more Saint-Saens than I do Brahms these days having overdosed on his symphonies and most of the piano music before I turned 20. I do often listen to the Brahms lieder as performed by Fischer-Dieskau and the three not-so-well-known very early piano sonatas. Of course, among others of his works, the Horn Trio is a towering masterpiece of which I never tire of.
Well, the lieder, the solo piano music and the horn trio are all good reasons to regard Brahms as a great composer, in many ways far ahead of Saint-Saens, Gounod, or any of the other French composers he detested.
But as you implicitly concede when you say that you listen to Saint-Saens more often than Brahms, it isn't simply about who is "better" (the New York Times to the contrary), the wide variety in art is a large part of its appeal. Any collection of music entitled "The Best of ...." makes me wince. If someone's music is truly worth hearing, it's worth getting beyond a publisher's or editor's arbitrary choice of "the best".
The way I look at it is that steak is better than hot dogs, but I enjoy hot dogs, too.
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