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?On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the important French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, the Basel Symphony Orchestra under it's conductor Ivor Bolton had set itself the goal of giving it's audience an insight into the composer's well-known and lesser-known symphonic works. In addition to the symphonies and various concertos, the orchestra has explicitly focused on the symphonic poems of the composer of the InchCarnival of the AnimalsInch. For the first time, these works as well as the well-known InchBacchanaleInch from the opera InchSamson et DalilaInch have been recorded according to Hugh Macdonalds' new critical edition published by Bärenreiter. Camille Saint-Saëns - who also performed several times at the Stadtcasino Basel - was very old when he died in 1921 at the age of 86. He had an eventful life behind him. He lost his father when he was still a baby. He entered the world of music as a child prodigy. Later, as an adult, his two young sons die. After the death of his mother shortly afterwards, he dissolves his flat in Paris, gives away and sells his furniture and goes into hiding. He spends fifteen years in a travel fever in ship cabins and train compartments. He travels from North Africa to China, from Russia to America - and composes. With the four works he composed between 1872 and 1877, InchLe Rouet d'OmphaleInch, InchPhaétonInch, InchDanse macabreInch and InchLa Jeunesse d'HerculeInch, Camille Saint-Saëns placed himself firmly in the tradition of Hector Berlioz, who had ushered in a new era in France with his InchSymphonie fantastiqueInch, premiered in 1830, as well as the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt, who had established the genre in Germany. During Saint-Saëns' lifetime, his four InchPoèmes symphoniquesInch became repertoire works that were heard around the world, but only the InchDanse macabreInch has remained in the concert progra
