Trio Poco - Le Cygne (The Swan)

Live performance at Midwest Musical Imports.
Le Carnaval des Animaux - Le Cygne (The Swan) (1886) - Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), Oboe & Piano
Saint-Saëns was a serious and dedicated composer for most of his life, and particularly so in the summer of 1886. He was living in an Austrian village, hard at work on his “Organ Symphony”, perhaps one of the most powerful pieces in his entire catalog, and actually composed the fourteen movements of Le Carnaval des Animaux, or The Carnival of Animals, as humorous depictions of animals for his student at the school where he taught. These pieces were not intended for public performance, and Saint-Saëns went so far as to forbid publication until after his death, so the first public performance of the full collection was not until 1922. The Swan was originally written for Cello, but as the only movement performed during the composer’s lifetime, it has been arranged for countless variations, such as this version for Oboe and Piano.