Saint-Saëns’ Ascanio premiered at the Paris Opéra in March 1890 — a grand opera in five acts set at the court of François I, following the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini and his apprentice Ascanio through courtly intrigue, a king’s possessive mistress, and a girl hidden in a reliquary to escape a forced marriage. The opera is rarely staged today. What survives in regular repertoire are the ballet movements Saint-Saëns later transcribed for flute and piano.
The Airs de Ballet are lovely and deceptively demanding — technically agile, musically nuanced, the kind of piece that sounds effortless when played well and exposes everything when it doesn’t.