The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns

To each his own: Schoenberg played tennis and Webern collected crystals; Gustav Holst was inspired by astrology while Camille Saint-Saëns prefered representatives of fauna to heavenly bodies. The Carnival of the Animals is his famous fourteen-movement suite. Thinking it might damage his reputation, being not quite serious, Saint-Saëns deprecated to perform and publish the suite while he was alive. Who are we to blame a composer for having good sense of humor, though? Saint-Saëns may have been self-critical – and there’s nothing that wrong in it – but this piece is a superlative of composer's talent, so say listeners, period.

The Carnival of the Animals is especially liked by music teachers because children usually prefer lion’s roars spread in the zoo to morning wails of string quartets, and it is a perfect compromise in that sense. Joyous and lively, it’s one of the finest pieces ever written, and even most accomplished musicians can’t resist the temptation of having it in their repertoire - a video proof, featuring Sir Roger Moore, Julian Rachlin, and Mischa Maisky, is below.

Full score of the suite is available here: The Carnival of the Animals.