Charles Camille Saint-Saëns

Prize winning organist Iveta Apkalna performs these works on the Kuhn organ in the Philharmonie Essen. She has established herself as a virtuoso and combines a deep sense of musicality and masterful technique with an unerring instinct for the effect of the music.

Reissue Producer and Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn

The recordings on this album come from the second part of Jascha Heifetz’s extraordinary career. Heifetz’s strong command of structure and attention to sensuous detail are evident in each of the recordings heard here, the music’s technical difficulties dispatched with consummate ease.

Continuing the celebration of Domingo’s 70th, we’ve selected 13 complete operas from all stages of Domingo’s career. Many of them are still at top price in the catalogue, but are being offered in this super-budget, limited edition box.

Packaging: capbox, with around 84-page booklet including tracklists, reviews of operas, synopses in English, German and French.

Camille Saint-Saëns and the Prix de Rome… surely a strange bringing together of ideas, given that the composer never gained that coveted award and consequently never took up residence in the famous Villa Medici? All the same, Saint-Saëns entered the competition on two separate occasions and, peculiarly in the history of the competition, twelve years apart: firstly in 1852 and then in 1864. On the first occasion he was still an adolescent, devoted to worshipping the memory of the great Mendelssohn; behind him, by the time of the second occasion, were already a number of his masterpieces later to be confirmed by posterity – and he had become acquainted with Verdi and had also discovered Wagner. If the music he composed for the competition in 1864 was not deemed worthy of being awarded a prize, perhaps that was due to it being full of a troubling and disquieting sense of modernity: there is clearly nothing that the cantata Ivanhoé need fear in a comparison with Il Trovatore… In the period between the two competitions Saint- Saëns concurrently secured for himself a reputation in church music based on a plentiful collection of magnificent motets; proof that it is possible to be successful in religious academicism and unsuccessful in its lyric counterpart (provided we set aside Samson et Dalila!) Hervé Niquet, the Brussels Philharmonic and Glossa are now presenting the second volume in their survey of music composed for the Prix de Rome with the majority of such pieces being previously unrecorded and definitely demanding to become much better-known.

This new collection brings back, under a new design, some of the best Dynamic releases of the past. The selection of rare recordings for 'music gourmands' will feature works spanning the Renaissance to the 20th-century music.

After Beethoven, the production of string quartets suffered a gradual decline.

In France, in the second half of the 19th century, very few string quartets were composed, the most important ones that survived the test of time being those of Cesar Franck (1889), Debussy (1893) and Ravel (1903). Indeed, also the two Saint-Saëns quartets here recorded ought to be included in the list, and one strives to find a reason why performers often disregard them in favour of the usual and more popular works. After all, the Quartet in E minor Op.112, composed in 1899, was written for that same Ysa&yumle to whom, six years earlier, Debussy had dedicated his own quartet. And how could a work composed for such a celebrated soloist be anything but fine?

Like Schumann and Brahms, also Saint-Saëns consistently included the piano in his chamber works. The two quartets here recorded are therefore an exception, and the composer had to abandon the notion of 'accompaniment' and tackle the balance of colours and sonorities of four string instruments, which as a rule lead to harmonic and polyphonic situations where all parts are of equal importance. Saint-Saëns conquered the form, for his hand was always guided by such musical wisdom and discernment as to make his works appear at once natural and extraordinary.

In his Quartets, writing is at the service of both technique and expressivity. Generally speaking, this work appears somewhat abstract, as if Saint-Saëns wanted to hide behind the notes. Anonymous music? More likely the mark of a genius. After all, his contemporaries thought there was only one thing wrong with Saint-Saëns: his lack of inexperience.

Hermann Baumann is one of the world’s greatest horn players. He won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich 1964 (Jessye Norman was second that year, and won in 1965), and from then on he played in some of the greatest orchestras, conductors and ensembles in the world. Claudio Abbado asked him during rehearsals in Rome for Mahler 6 ‘why aren’t you in Berlin?’ He played with Concerto Amsterdam under Jaap Schröder, for Karl Munchinger and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and for Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus Wien. A lifetime of concert giving around the world and an extensive discography has ensured that his stupendous technique and versatility, and characterful playing has been heard and admired by thousands of music lovers.

This extensive survey of his art embraces the major concertos and some rarities, some fascinating chamber works, and a selection of virtuoso showpieces that display the artistry of this multi-faceted musician.

Booklet essay by Hermann Baumann, recollecting his career.

This young pianist uses his everyday encounters and experiences as much as his contact with the keyboard to nourish his music. He particularly enjoys chamber music and has worked with ensembles such as the Psophos Quartet. He has a taste for intimate venues, where a true exchange with the audience can take place. Here he brings his talents to his native French and Russian works.

Celebrated as one of the most successful and gifted composers of his day, Saint-Saëns wrote music for woodwind instruments throughout his long career. This recording presents music from his early days as the ‘bright young thing’ on the Parisian music scene to the last year of his life.

Canada’s renowned National Arts Centre Wind Quintet joins Stéphane Lemelin, a laureate of the Robert Casadesus International Competition, to interpret these assured and beautiful works which combine virtuosity, gentle wit and thoroughly French charm.

The piano compositions by Saint-Saëns on this recording premiere are a kaleidoscopic reflection of various epochs and a listening tour through the musical hall of fame with their reminiscences of Bach, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt: gripping and fascinating music, full of elegance and sparkling wit. On this CD, Mi-Joo Lee offers a masterful interpretation of these works by a romantic genius.