May 6 - Premiere of the last, fifth piano concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns composed his last piano concerto No. 5 while in Egypt in the winter of 1895-1896. Later, the concerto was called "Egyptian" due to the place where it was written - the city of Luxor, once the residence of the pharaohs and the capital of all of Ancient Egypt.

The concerto was published in 1896 with a dedication to the pianist Louis Dimmer (1843 - 1919), who performed it several times. But at the premiere to mark the 50th anniversary of the composer's debut at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, Saint-Saëns himself was at the piano.

According to the author, the work recreated both a sea voyage and the fairy-tale world of the East. Saint-Saëns states that he heard the main theme of the second movement, the "Nubian love song", from boatmen on the Nile and wrote it down on his sleeve. At the end of the second movement, frogs and the chirping of Nile crickets can be heard.