Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44

“Superlative” The Independent

“A delightful set that does this underrated composer full credit” Classic FM Magazine

“Marvellous performances, full of joy, vigour and sparkle. The recording is in the demonstration bracket” Penguin Guide

“Entremont is a pianist of skill and aplomb, fully equal to [these concertos’] technical demands.” Gramophone Magazine, July 1991

“Saint-Seans on period instruments is an enticing prospect. The two headline instruments understandably grab the attention. The organ of Saint-Sulpice, one of Cavaille-Coll's supreme masterpieces, sounds utterly splendid in the Symphony, while an 1874 Erard piano tickles and tweaks the ears by turn in the Concerto. Beyond these are many points of interest, not least the quintessentially French woodwind” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“[Roth’s] registrations seem to be born from within the prevailing orchestral mood, but still you feel the immense power of the instrument...Roth’s son François-Xavier delivers on the podium; he chooses his tempi well, creates intense focus in his strings and winds (in slow and fast passages) and generates acute cumulative momentum – almost as if his players are winding each other up.” Andrew Mellor, bbc.co.uk, 26th May 2011

“The period instruments and sparse use of string vibrato do not diminish the ampleness of sonority, and in the slow movement there is beguiling warmth...there is visceral pleasure to be had from the performance's rhythmic drive, counterbalanced by polished phrasing and an appealing glow to the orchestral colour.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Roth’s Poco adagio is as graceful as I’ve heard it, the string and wind lines floating over soft, velvety organ tone...it's a nice touch to have the conductor’s father Daniel on organ duties, playing the famous Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris. He is pretty loud, but it’s such a marvellous noise that you’re willing to forgive him...There can’t be many more entertaining ways to spend 25 minutes.” The Arts Desk, 6th August 2011

“The monster Cavaillé-Coll organ of Paris’s St Sulpice is the star of Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony. Les Siècles specialises in “period” performance, with an 1874 Érard piano in the Fourth Concerto. The sound is full, although, in the symphony, St Sulpice’s acoustics mask some of the score’s detail.” The Telegraph, 14th July 2011 ***

“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