Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2

Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2

Huh! What did I say? Something by Saint-Saens to listen to each week!! So true!

This has been an interesting one! Managed to watch quite a lot of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, so I’ve actually heard quite a lot of music. I wasn’t sure which of the 5 Saint-Saens piano concertos to listen to (it’s a boxed set of containing all 5), so I asked Shrimp to chose for me. The odd thing here is that he chose no.2, which just happens to be the one played by the 2010 winner of that same competition, Lara Melda!

I absolutely love all the concertos – but then I am a Saint-Saens fan! According to the CD insert, no.2 is the most popular of the concertos, and, rather astonishingly, was composed in about 3 weeks in 1868! The premiere was conducted by Anton Rubinstein, with Saint-Saens himself at the piano. Unlike traditional concertos, the movements are slow-quick-quick, and begins with a Bach-style toccata solo, the middle movement shows the influence of Mendelssohn, and the finale is a run-away tarantella, showing the influence of Offenbach!

Strangely, I’ve been wondering lately whatever happened to a book I ordered; this is strange because I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday and was about to chase it when lo and behold it arrived today! Anyway, it’s Saint-Saens: his life and art, by Watson Lyle, published in 1923. Ironically, it has come from a public library in the States, via Betterworldbooks!

Anyway, as you can imagine, Lyle has quite a lot to say about all of Saint-Saens’ work. Here’s a snippet about the 2^nd piano concerto:

“The second movement, Allegro Scherzando, is airily graceful in character […] It is in six-eight throughout, and the colour impression of ethereal elusiveness is created at the outset by the scoring of the strings, pizzicato, while tympani denote the rhythm. At bar 5 the pianoforte enters with a theme of elfin capriciousness, a veritable Danse de Puck…” !

Well, if only we used rich, descriptive language like that today!

He goes on to say:

“The rhythm […] is so compelling that I have heard audiences, even of the best-regulated brands, tapping their feet pp. in sympathy with the musicians!”

Tut tut!

To sum up, if you haven’t heard this piece, do go listen, it’s really worth it! 

Day 10: Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saens

Day 10: Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saens

At one time I used to listen to Carnival of the Animals regularly, but it’s another CD that’s been languishing on the shelves for a while, despite Saint-Saens being my favourite composer (have I told you that before?!)

In fact, it’s been such a long time that I’d forgotten all the animals who are represented in the piece! And that’s what it is – musical representations of animals (including humans!) One of the most famous pieces from this orchestral suite is The Swan, a piece for cello which is just so sublimely graceful, and one of my favourites is the Elephants – played by double bass.

The recording I listened to was by the Sinfonia da Camera, conducted from the piano by Ian Hobson. This recording was made using the original instrumentation: 2 pianos, 2 violins, a viola, a cello, a double bass, flute, clarinet, celeste and xylophone. Given the relative simplicity of this original instrumentation, the evocation of each of the animals is quite superb!

Just wondering, as this is only my second week in this quest, am I going to listen to a piece of Saint-Saens music every week??

Day 4: Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1

Day 4: 23 April 2012. Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33

What you probably don’t know is that Saint-Saens is my favouritist composer in the world – ever!

I don’t actually have a vast collection of his music, but absolutely everything I have is just utterly magnificent!

I recently bought a copy of the cello concerto from a music shop in Leamington Spa, where they had a marvellous collection of CDs to rifle through! That particular CD had two Saint-Saens cello concertos (yes, In know it should be concerti, but it just doesn’t roll off the tongue!) on it, which was why I bought it. Despite this, the one I listened to today was my original copy of the first concerto, a recording of Paul Tortelier being conducted by his son, Yan Pascal. I actually heard them performing this together way back in the 80s in London, so this rendition is a particular favourite.

My only regret with this piece is that it is so short! At just over 18 minutes, I sometimes feel a bit short-changed! I wanna hear more!! Compare this to Haydn’s concerto in C, at just over 25 minutes, the Bliss at just over 26 minutes and the Elgar at just over 30 minutes. Mind you, Saint-Saens’ second cello concerto is even shorter at 17 minutes!!

I guess the tempo markings of Allegro-Allegretto-Allegro should be a clue that this is not going to be a slow and gushing piece! More like fast and frenetic! That doesn’t mean it’s a concerto a la classical tradition; this is a romantic piece, whose tunes draw you in and tug at your heart strings! The perfect combination: Saint-Saens and the cello!