Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921), compositeur. Lot n° 17

2 L. A. S., Rio de Janeiro, 1899, to Count de Lavaur de Sainte-Fortunade; 3 pages in-4° on the letterhead of the Grande Hotel de Castro, Campos & C. On a stay in Brazil (the Count, minister plenipotentiary of France in Brazil, had welcomed Saint-Saëns in Petropolis). "Everything went well. But what a day! Forced to rehearse in the morning to train my staff, I had to stay at the piano from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for the time to get dressed and swallow a cup of milk! The cellist finally warmed up a bit, the violinist covered himself with glory with his sonata; but the glory of the concert was the duet for two pianos with Arthur Napoleon, an artist of the highest order. The takings were enormous"... He evokes the change at the Opera with the departure of Gailhard and the project of a revival of Henry VIII or Ascanio "... Musical page of 9 bars on a staff with the words : " These few days that I spent with you will count in my existence among the most beautiful and sweetest that I will remember ".