SAINT-SAËNS Camille (1835 - 1921) - Lot 188

Lot 188
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SAINT-SAËNS Camille (1835 - 1921) - Lot 188
SAINT-SAËNS Camille (1835 - 1921) L.A.S. "C. Saint-Saëns", January 15; 4 pages in-8. Important letter on French music in the world. Saint-Saëns replies to a detractor who accuses him of "working for export": "Ten years ago, musical France imported, did not export. Foreign theaters did perform a few French operas, but in concert the German school had invaded everything. Now, whatever one thinks in some Parisian salons, in music, as in literature, the theater is not everything. In Vienna, in Leipzig, in London, a beautiful symphony, a beautiful quartet, are worth more than many operas, and many French people have long been of the same opinion. Also the Germans inevitably laughed at the French who only knew how to make theater". French instrumental music was never played abroad, nor even in France, which is more serious: "The long martyrdom of BERLIOZ is well known to everyone". Neither the Société des Concerts nor Pasdeloup, always ready to play German music, wanted to do anything for the French school. "It is to turn this situation around that I founded the Société nationale, which quietly and gently taught the artists that one could produce French music without shame", a success since the French school is now on all programs. Moreover, his numerous trips to Germany, Austria and Russia, "have resulted in the installation of French music on foreign programs. There is more: the German publishers who flood us with their editions, did not want to sell music printed in France; after a two-year struggle, they capitulated, and my works engraved and printed in Paris, invade Germany as Schumann's works printed in Leipzig invaded France. This is what I have done; you accuse me of working for the export, I am proud of it, and it is rather indifferent to me to be called Oronte; if Oronte lived, he would probably make operettas and would not go to so much trouble"... Attached is a L.A.S., Paris September 16, 1879, to M. SCHOLZ (2 pages and a half in-8). He will not tour this winter and will not go to Breslau; but he would go if the new director of the theater "decided to represent Dalila or Étienne Marcel"...
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