Les odeurs de Paris, probably composed in 1870 and subtitled a ‘grande marche’, is another delightfully daft piece, intended to evoke the smells of Paris with a ‘children’s orchestra’, including toy instruments – bird whistles, flageolets and ratchets – alongside piano, strings, trumpet and harp. Originally the score also called for ‘pistols’, but Saint-Saëns, probably wisely, deleted them. 

Nigel Simeone