Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Camille Saint-Saëns

Danse Macabre (trascr. Liszt-Horowitz)

 

The Danse macabre, Op. 40, originated as a chanson for voice and piano, inspired by a poem of Jean Lahor, but the difficulties that singers found in singing the melody in tune convinced Saint-Saëns to transform the piece into a symphonic poem for orchestra, which was performed for the first time at the Concerts Colonne in Paris on 24 January 1875, with only partial success. Franz Liszt, however, immediately demonstrated his enthusiasm for the Danse macabre by making a piano transcription that contributed more than a little to propagating the piece and, therefore, to its success. Among the works inspired by the legend of Death dancing at midnight amid the skeletons emerging from their tombs, Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre is the one that most clearly ignores the romantic-demonic interpretation and emphasizes, instead, ironic and humorous elements, with quite funny evocative effects, such as the knocking of bones (portrayed by the xylophone, in the orchestral version), and the anything-but-terrifying quotation of the Dies irae melody.

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Performers

Performance