Camille Saint-Saëns Veni creator spiritus

Camille Saint-Saëns was a true multi-talent. He was a pianist, conductor, organist, musicologist, music teacher and composer and became famous above all for the Carnival of the Animals and the opera Samson et Dalila.
He composed his Symphony in A major at the age of 15 and was accepted to the University of Paris at the age of 16. Saint-Saëns studied piano, organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire and became organist of Saint-Séverin in Paris in 1852. In the same year, he also met Franz Liszt, who subsequently exerted an influence on Saint-Saëns' compositional work. A year later, he celebrated his musical debut as a composer. The opera Samson et Dalila, which premiered in Weimar in 1877, brought him lasting success in opera houses to this day. His Christmas oratorio Oratorio de Noël, which is available from Carus-Verlag, is probably the best-known of his sacred works. Personal details