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Thursday, February 13, 2020

Camille Saint-Saëns - Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5 (Alexandre Kantorow)


Information

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
  • (01) Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 29
  • (04) Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44
  • (06) Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103, 'L'Égyptien'

Alexandre Kantorow, piano
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Jean-Jacques Kantorow, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/performers/kantorow-alexandre/saint-saens-piano-concertos-nos-3-5

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Review

It is no hardship to review yet another Saint-Saëns piano concerto recording when it is as good as this, and one which, moreover, has managed to accommodate these three on a single disc lasting a generous 80'37", a first for these particular works, so far as I know.
The soloist is the young (b1997) son of the distinguished violinist-conductor and, believe me, he is the real deal – a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery, as anyone will confirm who has heard his Liszt concertos (A/15) and, on his ‘À la Russe’ disc (7/17), an Islamey which is among the finest ever recorded.

One hardly needs to be told, listening to the opening of Op 29, that it was inspired by an Alpine torrent, so beautifully conjured is it by Kantorow père et fils and the Tapiola players, a passage which also immediately establishes the ideal balance between piano and orchestra – a further plus for this recording (tip of the hat to producer Jens Braun and sound engineer Martin Nagorni). ‘Prodigiously uneven’ though the Third Concerto may be (in the opinion of Alfred Cortot), this team papers over the cracks and the exuberant high spirits of the finale, as bracing as a splash of cold mountain water, are hard to resist.

Arguably the greatest of the five concertos, No 4 sets out on an uncertain journey, improvisatory, discursive, as if trying out and then discarding certain themes and ideas before pulling them all together in the second half. It begins, like the famous Organ Symphony (No 3), written a decade later, in C minor and ends in a triumphant C major. I had forgotten just how demanding is some of the piano-writing (for example, several passages of rapid sixths or thirds played simultaneously in both hands) but I have rarely heard it delivered with such commanding ease and infectious delight.

For further evidence of Kantorow’s skill, listen to the first few minutes of the Fifth Concerto and you’ll hear soufflé-light leggierissimo scale passages contrasted with fortissimo octaves of penetrating depth and weight. Yes, they are in the score but you will rarely hear them delineated as well as this. The exotic second movement, with its references to various musical genres – a Nubian love song, a gamelan, a Spanish guitar – is, again, among the best on disc and in fact my only quibble about the whole recording is the unmarked accelerando through the coda which renders the peroration inappropriately lightweight, a concern which does not disqualify it from sitting beside Hough (Hyperion, 11/01) and Darré (in all three), Cortot (in No 4) and Chamayou (in No 5 – Erato, 10/18).

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/saint-sa%C3%ABns-piano-concertos-3-4-5-l%C3gyptien-mr0005035296
https://www.amazon.com/Concertos-ALEXANDRE-TAPIOLA-SINFONIETTA-KANTOROW/dp/B07PKP8DKX

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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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns

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Alexandre Kantorow (born 20 May 1997) is a French pianist whose father is the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow. He studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley and Haruko Ueda, and is currently studying with Rena Shereshevskaya at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Described by Gramophone as a "fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm" and by Fanfare as "Liszt reincarnated", he won the first prize, gold medal, and Grand Prix at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, being the first French winner in the history of the competition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Kantorow

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