Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and Musicians by Roger NicholsReview by: Keith E. CliftonFontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 57, No. 3, Special Topic: Public Libraries (July-September 2010), pp.330-331Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23512162 .

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330 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 57/3

Lyons on 3 March 1943, a few days after the ter

rible anti-Jewish razzias in that city (which in cluded victims of his native Antwerp), is made little of and attributed to indifference, resulting out of Cluytens' dynamism, energy and ambi

tion. The passages devoted to Cluytens' marital problems and his affair with Anja Silja are also problematic. Cluytens' wife is maligned in a

way that comes close to the gutter press. Too

much reliance is placed on evidence provided by Silja, even for facts and events that she did not actually witness. By contrast, the well

documented chapter on Cluytens' tenure at the

National Orchestra of Belgium is very interest

ing and Baeck's research really comes to its

own in this section. It's a shame the book

doesn't contain an index. One also wonders why an unfinished dissertation on Cluytens, written towards the end of the 1990s at the Université de Paris IV, is not included in the bibliography despite some similarities with the current publication.

Jan Dewilde Centre for the Study of Flemish Music, Antwerp

Royal Conservatoire, Antwerp

Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and

Musicians. Edited and translated by Roger Nichols. New York: Oxford University Press,

2008. [xii, 187 p. ISBN-13: 9780195320169. $29.95]

From Hector Berlioz's incisive concert reviews

to the witty ruminations of Debussy's alter-ego Monsieur Croche, French composers have been

astute observers of contemporary musical

trends. And yet their contributions to music criticism are often overlooked in favor of

German writers such as Robert Schumann,

E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Theodor Adorno. One of the liveliest and most prolific essayists of the French fin-de-siècle was Camille Saint-Saëns, remembered today mostly for Samson and

Dalilah, Carnival of the Animals, and Danse macabre. History has not treated him kindly, in

part because of changing tastes but also his

self-professed conservatism. Railing as late as

1913 against "the mania for reform" (p. 55), Saint-Saëns concluded his career with a series

of sonatas that largely ignored developments in

modern music as practiced by Debussy, Ravel,

and Stravinsky. Saint-Saëns's traditionalist views, however,

should not imply that he had nothing of value to

say. Roger Nichols assembled a diverse collec

tion drawn mostly from essays, reviews, and

personal recollections. Of the thirty-eight selec

tions in this compact book, sixteen are trans

lated into English for the first time. The writ

ings cover nearly four decades, ranging from

an 1876 eyewitness assessment of the world

premiere of Wagner's Ring to a 1912 critique of

Saint-Saëns's chief rival Massenet.

Organized into two tidy sections, the book

opens with several broad essays on the nature

of music itself. Topics include the role of music in French society, shifting artistic trends in Europe, and the challenges French composers

faced in maintaining their national identity. Part two centers on individual composers and per

formers. Although I have great faith in the ac

curacy and reliability of Nichols's translations, it is regrettable that none of the French texts

are included, if only for the pleasure of reading

Saint-Saëns's witty prose in its original language.

Full source citations are included for each en

try should readers wish to track them down.

Many of the selections reflect Saint-Saëns's

role as a composer who, to use Nichols's words,

"believed in balance, in proportion" (p. vi). When writing about the value of art to society, Saint-Saëns rejects a moralistic or program matic view, writing simply that "the aim of Art is Art, and nothing else" (p. 15). He singles out

for special disdain Italian vocal music and its

supporters who only want to hear lyrical melodies. Stendahl's well-known Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio—described as

"the bedside companion of the majority of critics"—is presented as a book "whose disas

trous influence is still felt today" (pp. 16-17). His views on global music reflect a myopic colo nialist bias when he flippantly describes the music of Africa as "childish and without inter est" (p. 20), an ironic comment given his ap propriation of exotic styles in works such as

the fifth piano concerto. Saint-Saëns is most

convincing when he comes to the defense of

French music, especially his reasoned argument for opéra-comique as a French antidote to

German operatic conventions.

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REVIEWS

Part Two opens with a measured appraisal of

Meyerbeer, one of the most under-appreciated

composers of the era. Although Saint-Saëns ap

propriately criticizes Meyerbeer's "careless

ness over prosody" (p. 59), he readily acknowl

edges his seminal importance to the history of

opera. A lukewarm assessment of Rossini leads

to two short articles on Berlioz, that "paradox

made flesh" (p. 81). As with other writers, Saint-Saëns criticizes Berlioz's experimental ism and fanatical devotion to Shakespeare

while also praising his inventive orchestrations. In an enthusiastic assessment of Liszt, dubbed

"one of the greatest composers of our time" (p.

88), Saint-Saëns focuses on Liszt's creation of the symphonic poem and his innovations in sa cred music. One wonders what opinion he had

of Liszt's late works that hover between tonality

and atonality, such as the 1881 Nuages gris. Wagner is covered most extensively in a crit

ical but respectful appraisal of Tristan and the

Ring. Although clearly partial to Wagner's early

music (as were most French composers of

the time), he is offended by the cult-like rever ence for the German master and his overuse of

the leitmotif concept. The book's longest selec tion focuses on Gounod, a composer whose mu

sical legacy, like that of Saint-Saëns, rests on a small number of works. Starting with an appre

ciation of Faust and Roméo et Juliette, Saint Saëns discusses Gounod's sacred music in de

tail, especially the Messe de Saint-Cécile and the

oratorio Rédemption. The book concludes with

two articles in defense of Offenbach, a concise

appreciation of Bizet, a remembrance of

Pauline Viardot (the first Dalilah), and "Four Poems to Friends" written in honor of Gabriel

Fauré, Viardot, and composer Augusta Holmès.

For all their charm, the poems clearly demon

strate that Saint-Saëns's best work centered on

music and prose.

Whatever opinion one may hold of Saint Saëns and his music, there can be no doubt that Nichols's collection is an important and over due addition to the generally slim literature on the composer. Beyond the essays themselves,

Nichols provides numerous footnotes that com

plement the text and serve to illuminate the sig nificance of overlooked musical figures and events. On the minus side, neither a bibliogra

phy nor suggestions for further reading are

331

provided, and footnotes are left mostly undocu

mented. Nichols allows Saint-Saëns to speak for

himself by providing a broad and representa

tive sampling of his critical writing without any claim at comprehensiveness. His opinions on

early twentieth century composers such as

Debussy, amply documented in other sources,

are omitted entirely. But these are minor quib

bles. Highly recommended for all academic music libraries, Camille Saint-Saëns provides an engaging snapshot of the rich, eclectic, and

partisan views of one of the most significant

and underappreciated French composers of

late Romanticism.

Keith E. Clifton Central Michigan University

Amico: The Life of Giovanni Battista Viotti. By Warwick Lister. Oxford University Press, 2009. [xvi, 522 p. ISBN 978-0-1953-7240 3; 0-195-3724-0-9. $74]

Warwick Lister's excellent Amico: The Life of Giovanni Battista Viotti is exactly that: a book devoted Viotti's life but one which omits any de tailed discussion of his music. This is regret table, since the book itself is likely to remain the authoritative biography of this important

musician for many years to come. Nonetheless,

Lister's decision to omit this key aspect is un derstandable given the detailed nature of his biography. The book is, as Andrâs Schiff ob

serves, "a labour of love" and its strength per

haps lies in its author's decision to restrict its

scope.

Viotti's name is known today to every seri

ous student of the violin, even though compara

tively few of his works are performed. His fame

does not rest on his music or on the fascination

that surrounds the larger-than-life persona of a

Paganini or Liszt. The Viotti who emerges from the pages of Lister's book is an odd mixture of

fiery virtuoso and gentle recluse: a man who

prefers at heart the quiet beauty of the coun

tryside (though characteristically he fears storms and hates the wind) to the excitement

and stimulation of the city. Viotti's fame now

rests, as it did in the latter part of his own life

time, on the pivotal position he occupies in the

history of violin playing. His style of playing

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