Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns is one of those composers that outside of his native France isn’t that well known. Sure, many of us will have heard his most famous piece, Le Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of the Animals), if you’re a little bit deeper into classical music, you may know his Organ Symphony (no. 3).
And typically, that’s where most average classical listeners wits will end. I must admit it was very similar for me until quite recently. In fact, this is the very first time I even write a blot post about this composer.
However, nicely enough in the recent months, two new recordings of some of his piano concertos were released, triggering my interest. Both feature his apparently most famous concerto, no. 2. The first new release, with Louis Lortie, Edward Gardner, and the BBC Philharmonic, is more complete, featuring also concertos no. 1 & 4. You’ll find it on the Chandos label (and here on Qobuz). However, I overall have a slight preference for the other new release of 2018, namely:
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos No. 2 and 5 – Bertrand Chamayou – Emmanuel Krivine – Orchestre National de France (Erato 2018)
The 2nd concerto starts like a Bach solo work, which as a great fan of Johann Sebastian I really appreciate. But obviously, this is concerto of the romantic era (written in 1868), and once the orchestra sets in, there is no doubt about that. The concerto isn’t very “balanced”, the first movement being nearly as long, and “heavier” than the two other movements together.
You’d never be able to tell this work was written in only 17 days (it was written in a rush for Anton Rubinstein), and it is for a good reason the best known of the concertos.
That said, don’t skip concerto no. 5. It is a bit more intimate, but has many beautiful moments as well.
I’ve praised Chamyou for his beautiful Ravel box, and his playing is brilliant here as well. The ONF does a great job too, I believe they have a natural advantage over foreign orchestras as Saint-Saëns still gets much more air time in his home country and abroad.
To complete the album, Chamayou also plays several of Saint-Saëns Piano works, which were completely unknown to me. A particularly beautiful example are the 6 Etudes op. 111, that really show a close relationship to Debussy and Ravel, reminding us that Sain-Saëns lived long into the 20th century (he died in 1921).
Overall, a very enjoyable album that I highly recommend
My rating: 4 stars (5 star playing, 4 star repertoire)
You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (Prestoclassical)
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Hello there. I haven’t written a comment on your site in quite a while. I like classical music, but am anything but an expert. I’ve heard pieces by Saint-Saens over the years, and liked them quite a bit. I know that he gets played now and then on WRTI, a radio station in my region in the USA. Take care —
Neil S.
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Thanks Neil for your kind words. I must admit I’m equally behind in commenting elsewhere. And I fully agree with you, Saint-Saëns really is worth discovering.
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A morsel of education about your remark, in reference to the Second Piano Concerto above, that it “isn’t very “balanced”, the first movement being nearly as long, and “heavier” than the two other movements together.”
This is the standard and typical compositional arrangement of classical concertos. The first movement is usually the longest, most musically complex, and “heaviest” movement of the three. The middle movement is either a slow movement or a light scherzo, and the final movement is a showy allegro of some type. This is to the performer’s benefit, of course, in that the movements tend to get ‘easier’ as they proceed (not always true in terms of technique). But that’s not why composers do this. They employ the same arrangement for symphonies and other larger orchestral works with multiple movements. It’s true of choral works as well. (As a fan of J.S. Bach, I hope you’ve noticed that the first chorus of most of his cantatas is almost always the longest, most intricate, and most substantial.)
The reason, simply put, is the LISTENER. Even 400 years ago, composers were well aware that their listeners’ attention span was finite and their focus was going to wander at some point. The meatiest, most profound – and perhaps most aurally challenging – music was ‘front-loaded’ where audiences would hear it with fresh ears and hopefully appreciate and remember it. The subsequent movements were relatively shorter, lighter in feel, and easier to digest.
I realize you are not a professional musician and don’t claim to be, but as a self-professed classical music lover who took piano lessons for 10 years and attends classical concerts ‘regularly,’ I’m mildly surprised you weren’t taught this at some point or haven’t noticed it yourself.
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