Saint-Saëns: Allegro appassionato for piano & orchestra Op. 70

“Right from the opening appassionato phrase on the G string, Jean-Jacques Kantorow goes for broke… Kantorow can be delicate too, while his brisk speeds… ensure that nothing sags - the second movement, which Cooper calls a 'floating barcarolle', is precisely that, and the finale fizzes with nervous energy.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 *****

“If Saint-Saëns's idiom once answered – and maybe still does – to qualities fundamental to the French musical character, it must be said straight away that Hough sounds the complete insider. He commands the range of the big statements, whatever their character, as well as sparkle and panache, a sense of drama and seemingly inexhaustible stamina; and he can charm. Yet perhaps most delightful is the lightness and clarity of his decorative playing.
It's a bonus for the virtuoso passages not to sound hectic or overblown – for Saint-Saëns, virtuosity always had an expressive potential.
There's an air of manufacture about the writing sometimes, certainly, but as Hough knows, there must be nothing mechanical in its delivery.
Sweeping across the keyboard, dipping and soaring through the teaming notes, he flies like a bird. He manages to convey what makes these pieces tick: fine workmanship, fantasy, colour, and the various ways Saint-Saëns was so good at combining piano and orchestra. The orchestra has plenty to do. These scores are textbooks of lean but firm orchestration from which at least one major French composer learned (Ravel, another eclectic, who must have seen the 'old bear' as a kindred spirit). The days are past when the CBSO under Louis Frémaux was considered Britain's 'French' orchestra, but with Sakari Oramo it does splendidly here, playing alertly with its inspiring soloist as he does with it (another plus). The recording balances are fine, with lovely piano sound and plenty of orchestral detail in natural-sounding perspectives.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Marvellous performances of these delightful and ever inventive works from Stephen Hough, full of joy, vigour and sparkle, with Oramo and the CBSO acompanying spiritedly and with the lightest touch...An easy first choice for this repertoire.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Croshaw is a first-rate artist, as her musical characterisation fully demonstrates, and is perfectly balanced in the First Cello Sonata with her partner Christina Shillito, who favours a comparatively restrained lyricism...Excellent recording throughout ensures that altogether this is a morerewarding duet-recital.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“she is clearly a most gifted pianist and a fine interpreter of this composer's music; she is a splendid partner for the gifted Christina Shillito in the two works for cello and piano by Saint-Saens, and all in all, this is a most invigorating issue, very well recorded, which I commend highly.” Musical Opinion, May/June 2011

“Her nuanced, revelatory pianism seems almost outside of time in its understated eloquence, and in a way the chosen repertoire is perfectly suited. Her artless poetry at the keyboard is evident in Saint-Saëns' retro, and magical, Piano Suite...Her athletic legerdemain...seems undiminished...[in] the Allegro Appassionato op.70” MusicWeb International, November 2011

“…to hear Saint-Saëns play over an hour of his own music in thoroughly modern sound is undeniably haunting.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ***