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History: In later life, Camille Saint-Saëns became an inveterate world traveler. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, North and South America, England, Scandinavia, Russia, even the Canary Islands were all host to him at one time or another. Egypt and Algeria were to remain his preferred holiday venues, however, the composer even meeting his death in Algiers during what was to become his final stay in the country on December 16, 1926. Saint-Saens' personal experiences frequently translated to musical pieces, and a number of “African“ music can found among his oeuvres: in particular, a fantasy for piano and orchestra simply entitled “Africa“, the Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 103, which bears the subtitle “Egyptian“, and, perhaps most tellingly, the ever-popular “Suite algérienne“. The work was originally written to mark the change in Algeria's legal status from a military colony to a Department of Metropolitan France. Its first version was performed with great
