Camille Saint-Saëns

La Muse et le Poete

The piano trio version of La muse et le poète, Op. 132 was written by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) in 1910 during a vacation to North Africa, and that version premiered at Queen's Hall on June 7, 1910, with Eugene Ysaÿe on violin, Jospeh Hollmann on cello, and the composer at the piano. Saint-Saëns transcribed the version for violin, cello and orchestra that same year, and the same two string players premiered that version on October 20 at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris under Fernand Le Borne.

Despite the title (which was later added by the publisher to make it more marketable), no program is intended for the work and neither instrument represents either the muse of the poet. Saint-Saëns himself referred to the piece as "a conversation between the two instruments instead of a debate between two virtuosos." Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 2.2.3.0: Timp: Hp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set): Solo Violin.Solo Cello (both in set).