Camille Saint-Saens – Le Carnaval des animaux (FLAC+320)

(http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/266/g9ut.jpg/)

Tracklist

01. Le carnaval des animaux: 1. Introduction et marche royale du Lion (02:04)
02. Le carnaval des animaux: 2. Poules et coqs (00:52)
03. Le carnaval des animaux: 3. H�miones (Ou animaux v�loces) (00:33)
04. Le carnaval des animaux: 4. Tortues (01:56)
05. Le carnaval des animaux: 5. L’�l�phant (01:11)
06. Le carnaval des animaux: 6. Kangourous (00:57)
07. Le carnaval des animaux: 7. Aquarium (02:07)
08. Le carnaval des animaux: 8. Personnages � longues oreilles (00:40)
09. Le carnaval des animaux: 9. Le Coucou au fond des bois (02:02)
10. Le carnaval des animaux: 10. Voli�re (01:08)
11. Le carnaval des animaux: 11. Pianistes (01:25)
12. Le carnaval des animaux: 12. Fossiles (01:11)
13. Le carnaval des animaux: 13. Le cygne (02:41)
14. Le carnaval des animaux: 14. Finale (01:48)
15. Concerto pour piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22: I. Andante sostenuto (Molto animato) (10:38)
16. Concerto pour piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22: II. Allegro scherzando (05:31)
17. Concerto pour piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22: III. Presto (06:46)
18. Havanaise, Op. 83 (09:02)
19. Le rouet d’Omphale in A Major, Op. 31 (07:36)
20. Introduction et rondo capriccioso, Op. 28 (08:27)
21. Danse macabre, Op. 40 (06:43)
22. Le bonheur est chose l�g�re (03:10)

FLAC – https://mega.co.nz/#!y5oWXSbb!JuKRylbVl4znnDx_r4N-twf8fXYYWl0_0LLjYJTXch0

———- Post added at 01:12 AM ———- Previous post was at 01:12 AM ———-

The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux) is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Sa�ns. Written for private performance by an ad hoc ensemble of two pianos and other instruments, the work lasts around 25 minutes.

Following a disastrous concert tour of Germany in 1885–86, Saint-Sa�ns withdrew to a small Austrian village, where he composed The Carnival of the Animals in February 1886. It is scored for two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute (and piccolo), clarinet (C and B♭), glass harmonica, and xylophone.

From the beginning, Saint-Sa�ns regarded the work as a piece of fun. On 9 February 1886 he wrote to his publishers Durand in Paris that he was composing a work for the coming Shrove Tuesday, and confessing that he knew he should be working on his Third Symphony, but that this work was "such fun" ("… mais c’est si amusant!"). He had apparently intended to write the work for his students at the �cole Niedermeyer, but in the event it was first performed at a private concert given by the cellist Charles Lebouc on Shrove Tuesday, 9 March 1886.

A second (private) performance was given on 2 April at the home of Pauline Viardot with an audience including Franz Liszt, a friend of the composer, who had expressed a wish to hear the work. There were other private performances, typically for the French mid-Lent festival of Mi-Car�me, but Saint-Sa�ns was adamant that the work would not be published in his lifetime, seeing it as detracting from his "serious" composer image. He relented only for the famous cello solo The Swan, which forms the penultimate movement of the work, and which was published in 1887 in an arrangement by the composer for cello and solo piano (the original uses two pianos).

Saint-Sa�ns did specify in his will that the work should be published posthumously. Following his death in December 1921, the work was published by Durand in Paris in April 1922, and the first public performance was given on 25 February 1922 by Concerts Colonne (the orchestra of �douard Colonne).

Carnival has since become one of Saint-Sa�ns’s best-known works, played by the original eleven instrumentalists, or more often with the full string section of an orchestra. Normally a glockenspiel substitutes for the rare glass harmonica. Ever popular with music teachers and young children, it is often found on a CD in combination with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

I’m going to swim in the St Saens ‘aquarium …