Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) started composing at age 3 (and could read and write at that age). By age 10, he could play Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory. His Piano Concerto No. 5, nicknamed “Egyptian,” was completed in Cairo in 1896, but only the 2nd mvmt’s main theme is Egyptian, a lush and exotic Nubian love song. The 1st mvmt begins with a warm simple theme imbued with increasing energy in variations, followed by a slower, melancholy 2nd theme. The finale is a blaze of virtuosity with a vigorous and bustling 1st theme, then a driving new melody, subsequently combined and overlapped with the 1st theme. His Piano Concerto No. 2, composed in 1868, begins untraditionally with a slow mvmt (usually, the character of a 2nd mvmt), which, after a long, Bachian solo piano intro, moves to a melancholy theme and rich sonority. The 2nd mvmt is a light, airy and elegant scherzo. The finale is a high-spirited, entertaining tarantella. A contemporary pianist quipped, the concerto “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach.” Cesar Franck’s (1822-1890) Variations Symphoniques (1885) is in fact two sets of variations with a brilliant coda. Its opening piano and orchestral themes, somewhat wistful, evolve into an energetic, even gay, finale.