Information
Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
- (01) Ascanio – Ballet, Act III
- (12) Les Barbares – Prologue
- (13) La Jota aragonese – Overture
- (14) Andromaque – Act IV: Prélude
- (15) Andromaque – Overture
- (16) La Princesse jaune – Overture
- (17) Ouverture d'un opéra-comique inachevé
- (18) Ascanio – Ballet, Act III: 7. L'Amour fait apparaître Psyché (alternative version)
- (19) Ascanio – Ballet, Act III: 9. Variation de l'amour (alternative version)
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Jun Märkl, conductor
Date: 2019
Label: Naxos
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ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
Here’s a terrific disc for record collectors looking to complete their collections of Saint-Saëns’ orchestral music. The ballet from Act III of Ascanio is typical French dance music, and heaven knows there’s nothing wrong with that. In just twenty-four colorful, fun-filled minutes you get, in addition to the usual waltzes, gallops, and adagios, a splendid little Bacchanal with skirling oboes and antique cymbals, and a terrific ensemble number backed by castanets which may not take place in Spain, but hey, I won’t tell if you won’t. There are even two alternate numbers included to make the ballet absolutely complete.
The remainder of the discs consists of more rarities–overtures and preludes to Saint-Saëns’ many unknown theatrical works. Perhaps the only item you might have heard of will be the overture to La Princesse jaune. The rest will be new to most listeners, and delightfully so. The Prologue to Les Barbares is the biggest work here: essentially a fifteen minute long tone poem of great seriousness. La Jota aragonese (unlike the ballet music) really does offer typically Spanish melodic material, without however quoting that famous tune of the same name from Glinka’s Spanish Overture No. 1.
The remaining works, the overture and Act IV prelude to Andromaque and the Overture to an Incomplete Opéra-Comique, offer more of the composer’s effortless fluency and seemingly inexhaustible melodic imagination. You really can’t go wrong here, especially with Jun Märkl leading such vivacious performances, equally well played and recorded. This disc is a mandatory acquisition for anyone who cares about either the composer or good French theater music.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday
More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jan/Saint-Saens_Ascanio_8574033.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/saint-sa%C3%ABns-ascanio-ballet-mw0003324612
https://www.pizzicato.lu/jun-markl-setzt-sich-fur-wenig-bekannten-saint-saens-ein/
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.574033&languageid=EN
Here’s a terrific disc for record collectors looking to complete their collections of Saint-Saëns’ orchestral music. The ballet from Act III of Ascanio is typical French dance music, and heaven knows there’s nothing wrong with that. In just twenty-four colorful, fun-filled minutes you get, in addition to the usual waltzes, gallops, and adagios, a splendid little Bacchanal with skirling oboes and antique cymbals, and a terrific ensemble number backed by castanets which may not take place in Spain, but hey, I won’t tell if you won’t. There are even two alternate numbers included to make the ballet absolutely complete.
The remainder of the discs consists of more rarities–overtures and preludes to Saint-Saëns’ many unknown theatrical works. Perhaps the only item you might have heard of will be the overture to La Princesse jaune. The rest will be new to most listeners, and delightfully so. The Prologue to Les Barbares is the biggest work here: essentially a fifteen minute long tone poem of great seriousness. La Jota aragonese (unlike the ballet music) really does offer typically Spanish melodic material, without however quoting that famous tune of the same name from Glinka’s Spanish Overture No. 1.
The remaining works, the overture and Act IV prelude to Andromaque and the Overture to an Incomplete Opéra-Comique, offer more of the composer’s effortless fluency and seemingly inexhaustible melodic imagination. You really can’t go wrong here, especially with Jun Märkl leading such vivacious performances, equally well played and recorded. This disc is a mandatory acquisition for anyone who cares about either the composer or good French theater music.
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday
More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jan/Saint-Saens_Ascanio_8574033.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/saint-sa%C3%ABns-ascanio-ballet-mw0003324612
https://www.pizzicato.lu/jun-markl-setzt-sich-fur-wenig-bekannten-saint-saens-ein/
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.574033&languageid=EN
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Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist. Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy, making his concert debut at the age of ten. He was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in demand in Europe and the Americas. His best-known works include his concertos, his 3rd symphony, Danse macabre and The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns was enthusiastic for the most modern music of the day, although his own compositions were generally within a conventional classical tradition. Saint-Saëns' students included Gabriel Fauré.
***
Jun Märkl (born 11 February 1959 in Munich) is a German conductor. Märkl studied at the Musikhochschule Hannover and later attended the University of Michigan where his mentors included Gustav Meier. He was also studied with Sergiu Celibidache, and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. Märkl served as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Saarländischen Staatstheaters (1991-1994), the Mannheim National Theatre (1994-2000), the Orchestre National de Lyon (2005-2011), the MDR Symphony Orchestra (2007-2012), and the Basque National Orchestra (2014-2017).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_M%C3%A4rkl
https://www.junmarkl.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_M%C3%A4rkl
https://www.junmarkl.com/
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Thank you very much for this fine suggestion, since this work, unknown to me until now, is a real discovery, which is characterized by a successful mixture of Italian lyricism, Wagnerian influences and French elegance.
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