This is a unique CD with no less than eight world premiere recordings of compositions which the great French composer Camille Saint-Saëns intended for ‘military band’. The celebrated concert march Orient et Occident was apparently the only work the composer himself orchestrated for wind band, leaving this task later to specialists, mostly military band conductors. Besides four transcriptions, the overture La Princesse Jaune’, the ballet Music of ‘Henri VIII’, ‘Hymne à Victor Hugo’ and the ‘Marche du Couronnement’, you will discover the original band version of his ‘Pas-Redoublé’ op.86, the theatre Music for band for the pageant ‘Déjanire’, the surprising ‘Hymne Franco-Espagnol’’, the exotic novelty ‘Sur les Bords du Nil’, the piece written for the Sousa Band ‘Hail California’ and one of his very last compositions ‘March dedicated to the students of Algiers’, published after his death. Discover with amazement and delight a repertoire that was hidden, lost and forgotten for over a century.
1. 
ORIENT ET OCCIDENT, Opus 25 7’51
2. LA PRINCESSE JAUNE, Opus 30 – Ouverture de l’opéra 5’50
Transcription José Schyns
HENRY VIII s.o. – Ballet-Divertissement (*) (14’22)
3. The Entry of the Clans 3’45
4. Scots Idyll 4’30
5. Gipsy Dance 2’40
6. Jig and Finale 3’27
7. HYMNE A VICTOR HUGO 7’46
Transcription Gustave Wetgge (*)
8. PAS-REDOUBLÉ, Opus 86 3’48
Orchestration Auguste Josneau (*)
DÉJANIRE - Musique de théâtre (9’54)
Orchestration Charles Eustace (**)
9. Prélude du 1er acte 2’40
10. Prélude du 2ème acte 3’25
11. Marche du Cortège 3’49
12. HYMNE FRANCO ESPAGNOL 0’43
Orchestration Charles Eustace (*)
13. MARCHE DU COURONNEMENT, Opus 117 7’09
Transcription Louis Blémant
14. SUR LES BORDS DU NIL, Opus 125 3’59
Orchestration Gabriel Parès (**)
A son Altesse Abbas Hilmi, Khédive d’Égypte
15. HAIL CALIFORNIA! (*) 2’34
16. MARCHE DÉDIEÉ AUX ÉTUDIANTS D’ALGER, Opus 163 (*) 4’33
Orchestration Joseph Bouchel
Total time: 69’08
(*) World Premiere Recording Wind Band
(**) World Premiere Recording Wind Band on CD
