To bring this about we should need a combination of conditions that are
very rare in France; though such conditions went to the making of
Camille Saint-Saens. He had not only remarkable natural talent, but came
of a family of ardent musicians, who devoted themselves to his
education. At five years of age he was nourished on the orchestral score
of _Don Juan_;[114] as a little boy
"De dix ans, delicat, frele, le teint jaunet,
Mais confiant, naif, plein d'ardeur et de joie,"[115]
he "measured himself against Beethoven and Mozart" by playing in a
public concert; at sixteen years of age he wrote his _Premiere
Symphonie_. As he grew older he soaked himself in the music of Bach and
Haendel, and was able to compose at will after the manner of Rossini,
Verdi, Schumann, and Wagner.[116] He has written excellent music in all
styles--the Grecian style, and that of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries. His compositions are of every kind: masses, grand
operas, light operas, cantatas, symphonies, symphonic poems; music for
the orchestra, the organ, the piano, the voice, and chamber music. He is
the learned editor of Gluck and Rameau; and is thus not only an artist,
but an artist who can talk about his art.
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