Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 22

Composer: SAINT-SAËNS, Camille
  • Saint-Saëns composed his Second Piano Concerto in 1868, and it was published the same year.1
  • Saint-Saëns wrote this concerto in just 17 days, and consequentially wasn’t able to play it quite perfectly at the work’s premiere on May 13, 1868, conducted by Anton Rubinstein. In Saint-Saëns’s opinion, that was the reason for critics’ underwhelmed reaction to the concerto.2
  • Fun fact: Saint-Saëns was a piano virtuoso. He made his concert debut at the age of 10, playing concertos by Beethoven and Mozart from memory (concert pianists did not regularly perform from memory at that time).3
  • Fun fact: Saint-Saëns was among the first French composers to write piano concertos.4

Sources

  1. Daniel M. Fallon, Sabina Teller Ratner, and James Harding, “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 29, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000024335.
  2. Roger Nichols, liner notes to Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 and 4, Louis Lortie, BBC Philharmonic, Edward Gardiner, Chandos 20031, CD, 2008.
  3. Fallon, Ratner, and Harding, “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille,” Grove Music Online.
  4. Ibid.

Cut IDs

41577