Camille Saint-Saëns left behind five true piano concertos, of which the second and fifth are most frequently performed. This scholarly-critical new edition published in the series “Camille Saint-Saëns – Œuvres instrumentales complètes” now focuses on piano concertos Nos. 3 and 4.

Piano Concerto No.3 in E-flat major Op.29 caused quite a commotion when it was premiered in Leipzig – mainly because of its harmonic audacity “which did not have just a slight aftertaste of futuristic music” (“Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung” of 15 December 1869). Some years later in Paris the work was refered to as “The Last Judgement” which presumably signified “the death hour of virtuosity”. In the introduction to this edition Kurt Oehl spreads out the whole spectrum of the fascinating as well as fierce controversy reflected in the press.

The Piano Concerto No.4 in C minor Op.44 on the other hand represents a work that is unique in the concerto literature of the 19th century because of its symphonic form and structural unity. It is related not only to the third, so-called “Organ Symphony” but at the same time is based on a symphonic fragment of 1854 as Peter Rümenapp was able to verify.

This volume also includes the cadencas which Saint-Saëns composed for Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano concertos, amongst them two previously unpublished ones.

- Complete Edition of the Instrumental Works II/2

- First scholarly-critical edition of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 3

- Taking into consideration numerous new sources

- Two key works in the genre of the French 19th century piano concerto with a reliable musical text, extensive introductory texts (Fr/Eng/Ger), and Critical Commentary (Ger)