Camille Saint-Saëns

Overview - Recordings - Scores - Books - Links

Born: October 9, 1835, Paris, France
Died: December 16, 1921, Algiers, Algeria

Camille Saint-Saëns wrote several original marches for band, and finally one of them is available on a commercial CD! Orient et Occident is described as a march, but this 8-minute piece in ternary form sounds more like an overture. It's a beautiful work, shamefully neglected, and performed with love by Reynish and his Manchester-based wind orchestra on their new French Wind Band Classics collection. Marosi's even more recent recording is similarly fine, in a slightly quicker performance. You cannot go wrong either way.

Recordings

	Works	Performers	Reviews	Stores
	Orient et Occident, Op. 25	Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra Timothy Reynish	Anderson North Corleonis	Tower Amazon
	Orient et Occident, Op. 25	Symphonic Band of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music László Marosi		Tower Amazon

Scores

Orient et Occident, Op. 25 (Parry and Reynish edition)

Books

Camille Saint-Saëns: A Life by Brian Rees
Camille Saint-Saëns by Arthur Hervey