Adagio and Variations for flute and piano from opera Ascanio: Airs de Ballet d'Ascanio

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher who is mostly renowned for his opera "Samson et Dalila", Symphony No 3 (Organ) and "Le Carnaval des Animaux" (The Carnaval of Animals) for small orchestra: humorous fantasy that was not performed during his lifetime.

Gifted pianist and organist, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and served as a church organist for twenty years at renown "La Madeleine" church in Paris which was built to represent the glory of Napoleon's army.  For less than 5 years he taught at École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris where Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel were among his students. Even though Saint-Saëns admired some works of modern music of his time composed by R.Schumann, F.Liszt and R.Wagner, he was in conflict with impressionist and dodecaphonic schools of music and regarded as a conservative, even reactionary figure in music around the turn of the 20th century.