Saint Saens le Carnaval Des Animaux

The "grand zoological fantasy" called Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) is only the best known of several devilishly witty pieces this composer indulged himself with from time to time. Most of them can be found on this irresistible album, including the perky and absolutely unique Trumpet Septet. Ross Pople and his London Festival Orchestra are the ideal performers for music of this freshness and vigor.

Parmi les nombreuses versions disponibles du Carnaval des animaux, celle-ci fait partie des toutes meilleures. Notons que cette œuvre, aidée ici par la transparence et la précision d'une excellente prise de son, nous permettent de découvrir, d'une façon ludique, l'étendue et les particularités spectrales des instruments concernés. C'est à l'âge de vingt ans que Saint-Saëns composa le Quintette op.14. La qualité de cette œuvre annonce déjà l’énorme potentiel du jeune compositeur dans la musique de chambre.

The essence of Camille Saint-Saëns' music comes through perhaps most clearly in his music for solo instrument and orchestra, which exemplifies his elegant combination of melody and conservatory-generated virtuosity. The two cello concertos are here, plus a pair of crowd-pleasing short works for piano and orchestra, and the evergreen Carnival of the Animals, with pianists Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier joining forces along with a collection of instruments that includes the often-omitted glass harmonica. There are all kinds of attractions here: the gently humorous and not over-broad Carnival, the songful cello playing of Truls Mørk, and the little-known piano-and-orchestra scene Africa, Op. 89, with its lightly Tunisian flavor (sample this final track). But really, the central thread connecting them all is the conducting of Neeme Järvi and the light, graceful work of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; French music is the nearly 80-year-old Järvi's most congenial environment, and in this recording, perhaps his last devoted to Saint-Saëns, he has never been better.

François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles offer us a double-sided portrait of Saint-Saëns here. On one side, some of the most fascinating symphonic poems of French Romanticism are revealed in all the shimmering timbres of the period. On the other, we rediscover a composer who enjoyed a good laugh (The Carnival of the Animals also returns to its original colours!), when he was not involved in the early days of the cinema, with the very first music ever composed for a film!