Pianists and other animals: a French worldview

The pianists Albin Samuelsson and Markus Engelstad Von Zernichow play The Carnival of the Animals. After a failed concert tour in the middle of his career, Camille Saint-Saëns withdrew to a small Austrian village in search of peace and quiet. There he wrote, mainly for his own amusement, a work that he himself dismissed as "just something fun". A work – full of lions, elephants, swans and not least pianists – that he forbade to be published in his own lifetime, for fear that it would damage his reputation as a "serious" composer. Ironically, this very work would later become one of his best-known and best-loved masterpieces: The Carnival of the Animals. In addition to this zoological fantasy, you will hear other French repertoire by, among others, Francis Poulenc (1899–1963), Maurice Ravel (1875–1837) and Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) for piano four hands and two pianos. Performers Albin Samuelsson, Markus Engelstad Von Zernichow (piano) Ensemble CC: Free admission

RECORDINGS OF THE WORKS

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns: Dyrenes karneval

Whole work

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