Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 29
Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44
Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, ‘L’Égyptien’

Composer, piano virtuoso, conductor, teacher –Camille Saint-Saënswas all of these things, but also a keen archaeologist, astronomer, botanist, historian, illustrator, poet, playwright… A seasoned traveller, he was the most famous French musician in his own lifetime, acclaimed in North and South America, the Middle East and across Europe. It is ironic, then, that his extensive and varied output isn’t better known today –except for a few works of which the most famous, Carnival of the Animals, is one Saint-Saëns himself had little affection for. Now often regarded as old-fashioned or even reactionary, we tend to forget that Saint-Saëns during his lifetime was sometimes heckled for the boldness of his works. Furthermore, he defended the music of the revolutionaries Wagner and Liszt, earned the admiration of figures as Berlioz, Debussy and Ravel and –in 1908 –composed one of the first original scores for a film!