Musicians of today Author:Romain Rolland Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS M. Saint-saens has had the rare honour of becoming a classic during his lifetime. His name, though it was long unrecognised, now commands ... more »universal respect, not less by his worth of character than by the perfection of his art. No artist has troubled so little about the public, or been more indifferent to criticism whether popular or expert. As a child he had a sort of physical repulsion for outward success : " De 1'applaudissement J'entends encor le bruit qui, chose assez Strange, Pour ma pudeur d'enfant dtait comme une fange Dont le flot me venait toucher ; je redoutais Son contact, et parfois, malin, je 1'eVitais, Affectant la raideur."l Later on, he achieved success by a long and painful struggle, in which he had to fight against the kind of stupid criticism that condemned him " to listen to one of Beethoven's symphonies as a penancelikely to give him the most excruciating torture."1 And yet after this, and after his admission to the Academy, after Henry VIII and the Symphonie avec orgue, he still remained aloof from praise or blame, and judged his triumphs with sad severity : 1 Of applause I still hear the noise ; and, strangely enough, In my childish shyness it seemed like mire About to spot me ; I feared Its touch, and secretly shunned it. Affecting obstinacy. These verses were read by M. Saint-Saens at a concert given on 10 June, 1896, in the Salle Pleyel, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his cUbwt, which he made in 1846. It was in this same Salle Pleyel that he gave his first concert. " Tu connaitras les yeux menteurs, 1'hypocrisie Des serrements de mains, Le masque d'amitfd cachant la jalousie, Les pales lendemains " De ces jours de triomphe cm le troupeau vulgaire Qui pese au meme poids L'histrion ridicule e...« less