Tour du monde
Saint-Saëns

On the occasion of the centenary of Saint-Saëns’s death, the Palazzetto Bru Zane joins forces with Les Siècles and the conductor François-Xavier Roth to present an exceptional tribute. The symphonic poem, one of several genres of which he may be said to have been co-inventor, represents a significant part of his orchestral output. This gala will provide an opportunity to hear his complete symphonic poems (Le Rouet d’Omphale, La Jeunesse d’Hercule, Phaéton and Danse macabre). ‘Programme music is only a pretext for the artist to try out new paths and new effects [...]. What art gains from it is not greater beauty, but a wider field in which to exercise its power, a greater variety of forms and greater freedom’, wrote Saint-Saëns, seemingly to justify his four symphonic poems. In fact, the true programme of these works was already music, with the titles serving to soften the rigour of the subject matter. Hence the composer’s note in the score of Le Rouet d’Omphale emphasises that ‘the subject is feminine seduction, the triumphant struggle of weakness against strength’. Thanks to the participation of Bertrand Chamayou and Renaud Capuçon, several highly virtuosic concertante pieces will punctuate the cycle of symphonic poems.