The assured First Symphony, composed when Saint-Saëns was only seventeen
years old, shows remarkable facility such that it was appreciated by Berlioz
and Gounod. Understandably and undeniably it is derivative of early-mid
nineteenth century styles especially those of Beethoven and Schumann, as
Saint-Saëns himself acknowledged. There's a nod towards Wagner in the
assertive finale. The first movement’s commanding martial material is
contrasted with more hesitant reflective music with horns providing
interesting perspectives. The second movement, marked
Marche-Scherzo, has a bucolic atmosphere with folksong-like music
juxtaposed with a march that sounds as though it’s led by the pompous
conductor of a village band. After tiptoeing to its conclusion, the
Adagio slow movement has a hushed opening using muted and tremolo
strings. The main theme, an attractive long-breathed melody, unwinds slowly.
It is given to clarinet first and violin before going on to flute and cor
anglais over rippling harp figurations and tremolando strings. The finale
calls for much augmented forces including double woodwind and pairs of E
flat trumpets, two saxhorns and three trombones with four timpani and four
harps – all to frame an assertive, jubilant march.
The assured Second Symphony written some seven years later displays more
imagination, ingenuity and elegance in, for example, the use of a fugue as a
basis of the opening movement. The new Symphony was not performed until
1862, under the baton of Jules Pasdeloup to whom the work is dedicated. It
is more sparingly scored than the First Symphony. After much assertive
material, the brief second movement is hesitant and delicate in character
and treads daintily. There is much to recall eighteenth century gentility.
The following scherzo third movement with interesting springy cross-rhythms
skips confidently and the work concludes with a sunny tarantella reminiscent
of Mendelssohn.
Saint-Saëns’ symphonic poem,
Phaeton, scored for a large
orchestra, echoes the classical legend. The arrogant but unskilled young
Phaeton has driven the sun chariot through the skies but his lack of
experience startles the horses. The burning chariot is thrown off its course
and it comes too close to earth. To save the world, Jupiter strikes the
foolish Phaeton with his thunderbolt. All this action – the stampeding
horses and the thunderbolt - is evoked in Saint-Saëns’s exciting music and
the work ends in an affecting apotheosis as Phaeton’s sisters mourn their
reckless brother and are then turned into poplars to re-establish the world
order.
Soustrot and his Malmo players respond to this early Saint-Saëns symphonic
music with enthusiasm and élan.
Ian Lace
