Saint-Saëns was a restless universal spirit, called "the French Beethoven" by Gounod. A pianist, organist, journalist and teacher as well as a composer, he grew up under the tutelage of his mother and great-aunt, who kept the child prodigy's contacts with the outside world to a minimum. Camille's teachers came to the house - he never knew a real childhood. At the age of ten he made his début at Paris's Salle Pleyel. He lived with his mother until her death; she was not only a stern arbiter in all artistic matters, but also guarded him jealously against all other females. His marriage, undertaken at the age of 40, was short-lived. He and his 19-year-old wife had two sons who died within six weeks of each other (one, aged two and a half, fell out of fourth-floor window; the other died of a childhood disease). Saint-Saëns blamed his wife and deserted her in 1881. In 1857 he obtained the most important, and well-paid, organist's post in Paris, at the church of the Madeleine and kept it for 20 years, during which time he wrote a series of sacred vocal works. His reputation was based, however, on his Sunday improvisations, which attracted visitors of the distinction of Clara Schumann, Pablo de Sarasate, Anton Rubinstein and Franz Liszt, who was his close friend for many years. Unfortunately, the Parisian public rejected nearly all of Saint-Saëns's compositions. He was accused of excessive intellectualism, "confusing" harmonic language, "recherché" timbres, and of lacking the "simplicity of Italian bel canto". Nevertheless, he taught composition for four years (1861-65) at the private Ecole Niedermeyer, where his pupils included Gabriel Fauré. In 1871 he and a colleague, Romain Bussine, founded the Société Nationale de Musique as a forum for contemporary music, chamber and orchestral (including the first performance of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in 1894). The two founders resigned from the organisation in 1886, protesting against the performance of non-French works, and César Franck became de facto president, to be succeeded on his death in 1890 by Vincent d'Indy. Saint-Saëns first met Richard Wagner in 1860, in Paris. He became one of Wagner's champions, although his ambivalent attitude to "Wagnermania", and especially the series of articles on "Germanophilia" which he published in 1914, caused outrage in both France and Germany, so that finally he fell between all stools. After his mother's death in 1888 - a crushing blow for Saint-Saëns, who for a time contemplated suicide - he moved to the Canary Islands; but that lasted only six months, and for 14 years he was a wanderer, with no fixed domicile, and avoiding every human tie. Nevertheless his creative inspiration, which had dried up when his mother died, revived, and he poured the music out: on board ship and in pavement cafés, on the beach and while out walking. A "Festival Concert" in the Salle Pleyel in 1896 commemorated his début 50 years earlier in the same hall. In spite of Debussy's comment, in 1900, that Saint-Saëns had already written enough operas, it was on works for the stage that he concentrated his efforts in those years. He refused an invitation, in 1898, to join the committee for the erection of a monument to César Franck (he had not forgotten an intrigue conducted by Franck and d'Indy against himself in the Société Nationale de Musique), and stated that "Franck's influence on the French school was not a benign one, and a monument to Rameau, Méhul or Hérold would seem to me far more fitting". But even after his reputation had begun to wane in France, he was still considered in Britain and America to be the greatest living French composer. He continued to give recitals, even during the First World War (memorial and benefit concerts); his last was in August 1921. He went to Algiers in December that year, as usual, to spend the winter, but he lacked the strength to fight a protracted bout of pneumonia and died there on 16 December. His body was brought back to France, where he received a state funeral and was buried (like César Franck) in the Montparnasse cemetery.

Harvey Sachs

Biographical notes (c) 1996, by permission of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

A selection of major works:

Orchestral: Africa (piano and orchestra), Allegro appassionato (cello and orchestra, Le carnaval des animaux, Danse macabre, 2 Cello Concertos, Havanaise (violin and orchestra), Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (violin and orchestra), Marche héroïque, Morceaux de concert, 5 Piano Concertos, Le rouet d'Omphale, 3 Symphonies (including the Organ Symphony), 3 Tableaux symphoniques d'après La foi, 3 Violin Concertos, Wedding Cake (piano and orchestra)

Chamber: Piano Trios, Piano Music (for four hands), Cello Sonatas, Violin Sonatas

Instrumental solo: Bagatelles, Etudes (piano), Fantaisies (organ or piano), Improvisations (organ), Préludes and Fugues (organ)

Vocal/Choral: Le déluge, Mélodies (songs), Messe de Requiem, Oratorio de Noël

Stage works:

Operas: Ascanio, Les Barbares, Henry, VIII, Samson et Dalilah