Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Camille Saint-Saëns

Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra in F Major

 

Saint-Saëns, who was a piano virtuoso of extraordinary ability, wrote five concertos for piano and orchestra; the best known among them is certainly the fifth and last, in F Major. The concerto – a real tour de force for any pianist – was completed in 1896 and first performed on 3 June of that year, with the composer at the keyboard. Saint-Saëns had composed the concerto during a vacation in the Nile valley, and its middle movement makes use, albeit it with many liberties, of the theme of a Nubian wedding song. The insistent rhythmic pulsation of the imaginative, exuberant finale (Molto allegro), on the other hand, was inspired by the sound of the motor of the steamboat on which the composer had traveled along the Nile.

1. Allegro animato
2. Andante, Allegretto tranquillo, Andante
3. Molto allegro

Performers

Performance