Toccata d’après le Final du Cinquième Concerto, Op.11, No.6

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While Ravel disliked Saint-Saëns for his conservatism, he had the greatest respect for his craftsmanship. “It’s pure Saint-Saëns,” he said of the Toccata in Le Tombeau de Couperin, thinking perhaps of the Toccata that Saint-Saëns had presented as the last of his Six Etudes, Op.111, in 1899. It is true that the two pieces have little in common from the expressive point of view - the Saint-Saëns Toccata is no more than a frothy confection on themes from the last movement of his Fifth Piano Concerto - but the percussive element in the older composer’s keyboard writing, the brilliant right-hand figuration and the exhilarating surge of legato melody are qualities Ravel would certainly have admired.