Souvenir d’Italie op. 80

Saint-Saëns took his first trip to Italy in 1857, on the invitation of Abbé Gabriel, the dedicatee of his Messe, op. 4: a welcome compensation for the young composer who had failed to win the Prix de Rome competition five years earlier. In July 1886, the musician, now in his fifties, visited Florence, several months before resigning from the Société Nationale de Musique. The Souvenir d’Italie (composed on 28-29 August 1887), probably refers to this latter stay, since an engraving of the Palazzo Vecchio was reproduced on the cover of the score. The barcarolle rhythm of the two Allegretto sections, however, is more reminiscent of Venice than Florence. The piece begins with a cadenza based on a one-bar motif, treated as an ostinato, but soon interrupted by a torrent of crystalline semiquavers, which herald the brio to come. After this introductory section, a melody flows over the rocking left hand. Gradually, arpeggioed semiquaver, then demisemiquaver, figures multiply, creating an accelerative effect. They seamlessly introduce the central section, a gossamer light dance in 2/4. The work finishes with a shortened return of the barcarolle. However, the work’s delicate poetic charm conceals a careful desire for a unifying principle, since all the material stems from the initial ostinato. The subtlety of the writing was probably not lost on the work’s dedicatee, Marie Poitevin (a pianist to whom Franck dedicated his Prélude, Choral et Fugue), or on Marie Jaëll, who gave the premiere of the Souvenir d’Italie, on 19 January 1889, at the Salle Érard.