Alan Alda unites his two passions, music and theater, in dramatic presentations of two colorful chamber works featuring dancer Colleen Dunn and actor Noah Wyle. The following are program notes for the performances on April 29 and April 30 at the 92nd Street Y.

SAINT-SAËNS: Carnival of the Animals
Camille Saint Saëns was born in Paris in 1835 and died in Algiers in 1921. He composed Carnival of the Animals in 1886.

Of Camille Saint Saëns, Berlioz once remarked, “He knows everything but lacks inexperience.” This bon mot is ideally suited to describe a man who, having composed his first piece at age three, was hailed for a time as a second Mozart; who played a piano recital in Paris at age ten and offered to play as an encore any Beethoven piano sonata that the audience might be pleased to request; who was hailed by Liszt as the greatest organist in the world; who eagerly pursued studies in archeology, astronomy and philosophy and wrote extensively in all three fields, as well as taking a vigorous part in musical polemics. And, of course, in his 86 years, he composed 13 operas, five symphonies (of which two remained unpublished after his death), orchestral tone poems, ten full-fledged concertos for piano, violin, or cello, and a large body of chamber music and other works. But he is best remembered for a private burlesque which he dashed off in a matter of days, an amusing jest called The Carnival of the Animals (this fact would have caused him deep chagrin). Unlike many other composers of the romantic era, Saint-Saëns was more classical in his orientation, preferring clarity and craftsmanship to inspiration and personal expression. Today, when so many adopt the expression of personal feelings as the height of significant statement, we rather lose track of composers like Saint-Saëns, who remind us of the opposite swing of the artistic pendulum.

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