Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5

Saint-Saens complete piano concertos on a 2CD Eloquence set presents some truly rare recordings - Campanella's of the Fourth and Tagliaferro's of the Fifth. And while the second is oft-played, this set gives the listener an opportunity to discover the lesser known First and Third. Also included is the first release on CD of Wedding Cake, with Daniel Chorzempa, familiar to all as an organist, playing the piano.

Although Camille Saint-Saëns ranks among the most notable of French composers, he was also one of the leading pianists of his day – a child prodigy whose virtuosic talent continued to delight audiences well into his later years. His piano concertos were written primarily for his own use in concert. Today they occupy a fun and sparkling place in the repertoire.

Full of youthful ambition and recalling Mendelssohn’s lively style, Saint-Saëns’s First Piano Concerto was written when the composer was just 23; another ten years followed before the Second, which is generally considered the masterpiece of the set. Written especially for a concert conducted by Anton Rubinstein, No.2 is certainly Saint-Saëns’s most popular: high in spirits and full of invention, it was soon followed by the Third Piano Concerto of 1869 and much later by the Fourth, whose adventurous and novel five-section structure reveals a mature composer at the height of his career. The Fifth is an exotic-sounding work that was written during the composer’s annual vacation to Egypt in 1895.

Not only do Saint-Saëns’s piano concertos provide evidence of the composer’s developing style, but they illuminate how arresting an artist he must have been in concert. Philippe Entremont has long been admired for his panache in Romantic music, from admired discs of Rachmaninov’s concertos with Ormandy and the Philadelphia in the 1960s to these more modern recordings. Michel Plasson and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse complete an all-French line-up.

Recorded in 1978–79

After the international success of Camille Saint-Saëns’s five piano concertos in two single volumes audite now presents the complete piano concertos as a reissue on double SACD.

30 CD + 1 CD ROM - CD-ROM contains notes on artists and concertos.

For anyone who loves the piano concerto, this 30CD set is a must-have. Containing the complete Beethoven cycle recorded by Brendel in the 1960s for Vox, the set also includes Tacchino’s pioneering set for the same label of the five Saint-Saëns concertos, and the complete Rachmaninoff concertos performed by Lugansky and Lill.

‘This performance gave me real pleasure. Brendel plays with a mixture of heart and head that is most satisfying, to which he adds countless touches of pianism that delight. He constantly throws light on the music by an interpretation that is clearly born of much thought about it and a deep understanding. The firstmovement is virile, the slow movement is most beautiful (I cannot imagine the solo opening better judged or more sympathetically played) and the finale goes at just the right speed, jaunty and pointed.’ Gramophone review, Brendel, Beethoven Concerto No.3

The 18th century is the starting point for this fabulous journey through the development of the piano concerto – Haydn’s delectable concertos and all Mozart’s 27, including the first four concertos. Kissin’s Tchaikovsky No.1 and Prokofiev No.3 can also be found here as well as his recording at the age of 12 of the two Chopin concertos, alongside rarities such as Field’s Concertos 5 & 6, and Weber’s three underrated concertos. Mendelssohn’s two brilliant concertos, the two huge masterworks by Brahms, Dvorák’s elusive G major Concerto with its beautiful slow movement, and the evergreen Schumann and Grieg ensure that this set will provide endless pleasure for the enthusiast.