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It is perhaps not surprising that pianist Pascal Rogé -- a third-generation French musician -- has mastered the modern French piano repertoire. What is surprising is the actual breadth of his repertoire and the young age at which he excelled.

In 1962, at the age of 11, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, having previously studied with his mother. By the age of 15, he had won first prize for both piano and chamber music. At 18, he performed solo recitals in both Paris and London. But his major breakthrough was the first prize in the Jacques Thibaud International Competition in 1971. Several European engagements followed, and in 1974 he made his first tour to the United States, returning nearly every season. He has also become a favorite in Australia and Japan, where he has made over 20 tours.

Rogé's particular strengths lie in his sensitive and personal interpretations of 20th century French composers; he has made recordings of complete cycles of Ravel, Poulenc, and Satie, among others. His repertoire also includes d'Indy, Saint-Saëns, as well as the great German masters -- Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven. His recordings have received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison award for the Ravel concertos. His first volume of Poulenc won the 1988 Gramophone award for Best Instrumental Recording, and his collaboration with Chantal Juillet and Truls Mørk won the 1997 Gramophone award for Best Chamber Music recording. In the new century, he began a new recording project for Onyx that included a complete Debussy cycle. He also began performing and touring with his wife, Ami Rogé. The pair commissioned a two piano concerto from Matthew Hindson, which they premiered in 2011.

He has taught at the Académie in Nice, but a busy international schedule has kept him from consistent teaching. More stylist than virtuosic, his solo pianism has been recognized for its decidedly French elegance, while his collaboration with orchestras has been noted for its faultless musicianship, and made him a favorite of conductors ranging from Charles Dutoit to Lorin Maazel to Kurt Masur.

Camille Saint-Saëns was something of an anomaly among French composers of the nineteenth century in that he wrote in virtually all genres, including opera, symphonies, concertos, songs, sacred and secular choral music, solo piano, and chamber music. He was generally not a pioneer, though he did help to revive some earlier and largely forgotten dance forms, like the bourée and gavotte. He was a conservative who wrote many popular scores scattered throughout the various genres: the Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony No. 3 ("Organ"), the symphonic poem Danse macabre, the opera Samson et Dalila, and probably his most widely performed work, The Carnival of The Animals. While he remained a composer closely tied to tradition and traditional forms in his later years, he did develop a more arid style, less colorful and, in the end, less appealing. He was also a poet and playwright of some distinction.

Saint-Saëns was born in Paris on October 9, 1835. He was one of the most precocious musicians ever, beginning piano lessons with his aunt at two-and-a-half and composing his first work at three. At age seven he studied composition with Pierre Maledin. When he was ten, he gave a concert that included Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, Mozart's B flat Concerto, K. 460, along with works by Bach, Handel, and Hummel. In his academic studies, he displayed the same genius, learning languages and advanced mathematics with ease and celerity. He would also develop keen, lifelong interests in geology and astronomy.

In 1848, he entered the Paris Conservatory and studied organ and composition, the latter with Halévy. By his early twenties, following the composition of two symphonies, he had won the admiration and support of Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Rossini, and other notable figures. From 1853 to 1876, he held church organist posts; he also taught at the École Niedermeyer (1861-1865). He composed much throughout his early years, turning out the 1853 Symphony in F ("Urbs Roma"), a Mass (1855) and several concertos, including the popular second, for piano (1868).

In 1875, Saint-Saëns married the 19-year-old Marie Truffot, bringing on perhaps the saddest chapter in his life. The union produced two children who died within six weeks of each other, one from a four-story fall. The marriage ended in 1881. Oddly, this dark period in his life produced some of his most popular works, including Danse macabre (1875) and Samson et Dalila (1878). After the tragic events of his marriage, Saint-Saëns developed a fondness for Fauré and his family, acting as a second father to Fauré's children.

But he also remained very close to his mother, who had opposed his marriage. When she died in 1888, the composer fell into a deep depression, even contemplating suicide for a time. He did much travel in the years that followed and developed an interest in Algeria and Egypt, which eventually inspired him to write Africa (1891) and his Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Egyptian". He also turned out works unrelated to exotic places, such as his popular and most enduring serious composition, the Symphony No. 3.

Curiously, after 1890, Saint-Saëns' music was regarded with some condescension in his homeland, while in England and the United States he was hailed as France's greatest living composer well into the twentieth century. Saint-Saëns experienced an especially triumphant concert tour when he visited the U.S. in 1915. In the last two decades of his life, he remained attached to his dogs and was largely a loner. He died in Algeria on December 16, 1921.

Charles Dutoit is among the world's most acclaimed conductors, perhaps best known for his long tenure as the music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has also held positions with venerable orchestras around the world, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Dutoit has collaborated with many leading musicians during his career, including Salvatore Accardo, James Galway, and especially Martha Argerich, with whom he won one of his two Grammy Awards and was also married to for a time. Though controversy has surrounded his late career and several associations were ended, he held the posts of co-director of Shanghai's MISA Festival and principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra as of the mid-2020s.

Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 7, 1936. He studied violin, viola, piano, and percussion as a child and became interested in conducting early after watching Ernest Ansermet leading the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in concert and rehearsal. Dutoit attended the Lausanne Conservatory, studying violin, piano, and conducting, then moved to the Geneva Conservatory to study viola and conducting, taking first prize in the latter and graduating in 1958. While still a student, Dutoit began his professional career, performing viola in several ensembles in South America and Europe. He also studied conducting with Alceo Galliera at Siena's Accademia Chigiana and attended Tanglewood in 1959. That year, he made his professional conducting debut, joining Argerich and a Radio Lausanne orchestra, and began regular guest-conducting appearances with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His first appointment was as the Radio Zurich conductor from 1965 until 1967. The following year, he succeeded Paul Kletzki as the chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra, leading that group until 1978. In 1969, Dutoit married Argerich, and they had a daughter together. Though the marriage ended in 1973, the two continued a professional relationship.

Dutoit held several other posts during his Bern tenure, including with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (1973-1975) and the Gothenburg Symphony (1975-1978). In 1977, he was appointed artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He refined that group and, thanks to a substantial and lengthy recording contract with the Decca label, brought the Montreal Symphony to international recognition. Among these acclaimed recordings are Holst: The Planets (1987), Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (1991), and Berlioz: Les Troyens (1995); the latter earned Dutoit a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. During his tenure with the Montreal Symphony, Dutoit helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer concert series at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts (1990-1999) and in Saratoga Springs (1990-2010). In 1991, he became the music director of the Orchestre National de France and took the same post with the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 1998 until 2003, after serving as principal conductor since 1996. Dutoit earned his second Grammy Award in 2000 for a recording of piano concertos by Bartók and Prokofiev, leading the Montreal Symphony with Argerich as a soloist. Dutoit stepped down from the Orchestre National de France post in 2001, and the next year, after complaints about his behavior by the Quebec Musicians Guild, he abruptly resigned from his Montreal position.

In 2008, Dutoit became the chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and took the artistic director and principal conductor positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009. That year, he also began his tenure as the music director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. He was named co-director of the MISA Festival in Shanghai in 2010, and the Philadelphia Orchestra named Dutoit its conductor laureate in 2012. In 2017, he became conductor emeritus of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and he was given the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. During that year and the following year, accusations of sexual assault were levied against Dutoit for incidents that occurred between the late '70s and 2010. He has denied all accusations. Engagements with multiple orchestras worldwide were canceled, he was stripped of his laureate title from the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he resigned his posts with the Royal Philharmonic in early 2018. Later that year, he was named the principal guest conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, continuing to hold that post and the co-directorship of the MISA Festival as of 2024. ~ Keith Finke