Camille Saint-Saëns

Havanaise E-Dur op. 83

Cuban dance from France

The 'Havanaise' possibly goes back to the composer's friendship with the Cuban-born violinist Rafael Diaz Albertini. Thus it may have been natural that Saint-Saens, out of sympathy for his music-making partner, resorted to the Habanera, a syncopated slow dance from Cuba, when it came to writing a work for Diaz Albertini in 1887. First, the version for violin and piano was written, and a little later - on the advice of the publisher Durand - the orchestral version. Diaz Albertini, to whom the work is also dedicated, played its premiere before other virtuosos appropriated the 'Havanaise' and made it internationally known. The basis of the first Urtext edition of the work is the first printing, which Saint-Saens himself presumably supervised.

Flute (2), oboe (2), clarinet (2), bassoon (2), horn (2), trumpet (2), timpani