Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22

“One would now be surprised to find such a first-half sequence as Bax’s London Pageant, Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No 2, a Handel aria and Beethoven’s Fifth, though former approaches to programming are being revisited this season. The bittiness is compounded by the fact that only two Saint-Saëns movements survive, and one Beethoven (the Bax not at all). There is a pitch sag early in the concerto, but Moura Lympany’s account is enjoyable. Heddle Nash is the delightfully “period” tenor.” Sunday Times, 20th July 2008 ***

“A young Moura Lympany gives a vivacious account of Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto (although the central scherzo is missing from this off-air recording, and the pitch drops in the first movement); and the prized tenor Heddle Nash sings Handel. Dukas, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and an oddity in the shape of Lamar Stringfield's A Negro Parade complete an intriguing glimpse into a piece of Proms history.” The Telegraph, 19th July 2008

“Saint-Saëns's… piano concertos are fascinating works on many fronts, but not least for the balance they seem to hold between the wild Romantic and the contained Classical composer. Thibaudet subscribes rather to the latter view.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 *****

“This scintillating disc finds Jean-Yves Thibaudet on notably effervescent form, revelling in Saint-Saëns's pianistic brio and intricacy. He makes a special case for the enchanting but still neglected Egyptian Concerto, commenced in Luxor, completed in Cairo and, according to the composer, reflecting 'the joy of a sea voyage'.
He brings a recognisably French clarity and verve to the music's foaming figuration and captures all of its audacity (an imitation of croaking Nile frogs in the central Andante and pumping boat engines in the riotous finale).
Hear his pin-point brilliance in the opening Allegro animato where the pianist weaves a sparkling thread round the orchestral outline, his fast-paced avoidance of sententiousness in the long-winded Andante and his rush of adrenalin in the split octave upsurge at the end of the concluding Molto allegro, and you are made conscious of a pianist whose virtuosity takes wing in exactly the way prescribed by the composer.
Much the same could be said of Thibaudet's performance of the Second Concerto, music which as one writer put it journeys from Bach to Offenbach. His ad libitum opening cadenza is complemented by flashing fingers elsewhere, and since there is inwardness as well as an irresistible élan and impetus in the Franck Variations, you could say that Thibaudet and France (or in Franck's case, Belgium) go together like a horse and carriage. Dutoit and the Suisse Romande are all of a piece with their high-flying soloist and Decca's balance and sound are exemplary.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This scintillating disc finds Jean-Yves Thibaudet in notably effervescent form, revelling in Saint-Saëns's pianistic brio and intricacy. Dutoit and the Suisse Romande are all of a piece with their high-flying soloist and Decca's balance and sound are exemplary.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“[On Thibaudet's playing of the Saint Saens Piano Concerto No.2] brilliant, heartless, Parisian, and Thibaudet rode it like a powerful horse, getting into a sure-footed rhythm, leaping every fence…” The Independent