Camille saint-saens oratorio de noel youtube
Saint-saëns: weihnachtsoratorium / christoph poppen / drp!
Starting with a bow to the great master, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) opened his 1858 Oratorio de Noël (Christmas Oratorio) with an organ prelude ‘in the style of J.S.
Bach’. Written in 1858, the work was recognized in its time for its Bachian echoes.
Camille saint-saens oratorio de noel youtube
While for us, this would be great praise, in mid-19th century Paris, it was a dismissive comment. The organists knew Bach, but for the public, awash in miles and miles of opera, he was virtually unknown. Saint-Saëns had been appointed organist of the Madeleine church in Paris in 1857, at age 22, a recognition of his skills.
Camille Saint-Saëns in the 1850s
Camille Saint-Saëns: Oratorio de Noël, Op.
12 – Prelude (In the Style of J.S. Bach) (Karin Langebo, harp; Bengt Forsberg, organ; Royal Opera Theater Orchestra; Anders Eby, cond.)
We can equate the beginning of Saint-Saëns’ work with the Sinfonia that starts Bach’s own Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248.
The contribution of Saint-Saëns is an updating of Bach’s Baroque