Camille Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy, reportedly playing a Mozart sonata at age four and giving his first public concerts at eleven.
Performer Biography
Jean-Jacques Kantorow, the violinist and conductor on this album, is of Russian extraction and studied violin at the conservatories of Nice and Paris, winning first prize in Paris a year after enrolling.
Performer Biography
Heini Kärkkäinen, the pianist on this album, won the Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Competition in 1984 and was nominated Young Artist of the Espoo International Piano Week in 1993.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Saint-Saëns's music is characterized by clarity, balance, precision, and elegance, reflecting an adaptation of the Viennese classical tradition to French taste.
Composer Biography
Saint-Saëns's career as a pianist spanned sixty-four years, concluding with a concert in Dieppe at age 86, months before his death.
Composition History
The Valse-Caprice ('Wedding Cake'), Op. 76, was composed by Saint-Saëns in 1886 as a wedding gift for his friend, the pianist Caroline de Serres.
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