Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)
Le Rouet d'Omphale, Op. 31

Sergey Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943)
The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29

Leos Janácek (1854 - 1928)
Taras Bulba

Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936)
Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome)

Saint-Saëns was born in Paris in 1835. His father, a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, died shortly after his son's birth, and the boy was brought up by his mother and her aunt, the latter giving him his first piano lesson when he was two and a half. He showed exceptional ability and at the age of ten appeared in a public concert at the Sallé Pleyel, having already learned by heart all the Beethoven sonatas.

In an otherwise distinguished enough career at the Conservatoire, where he had composition lessons from Halevy and studied the organ with Bergist, Saint-Saëns failed to win the Prix de Rome, but wrote an impressive series of compositions. In common with many other Fre