Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Truls Mørk, Louis Lortie, Hélène Mercier, Alasdair Malloy
Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Neeme Järvi
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Release: 2015
Size: 1.23 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
01. I. Allegro non troppo
02. II. Allegretto con moto
03. III. Allegro non troppo
Cello Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 119
04. I. Allegro moderato e maestoso – Andante sostenuto
05. II. Allegro non troppo
Le carnaval des animaux, R. 125 (Arr. for 2 Pianos & Orchestra)
06. I. Introduction et marche royale du lion
07. II. Poules et coqs
08. III. Hémiones
09. IV. Tortues
10. V. L’éléphant
11. VI. Kangourous
12. VII. Aquarium
13. VIII. Personnages à longues oreilles
14. IX. Le coucou au fond des bois
15. X. Volière
16. XI. Pianistes
17. XII. Fossiles
18. XIII. Le cygne
19. XIV. Finale
20. Wedding Cake – Valse-Caprice for piano & strings, Op. 76
21. Africa – Fantasie for piano & orchestra Op. 89
The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Neeme Järvi present this unusual collection of popular works by Saint-Saëns, for orchestra and piano or cello.
Truls Mørk, this season Artist in Residence with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, is the soloist in the two contrasted cello concertos. His ‘seemingly flawless technical command’ is tested in the suave, expressive, famous No. 1 as well as in the many taxing solo passages, huge leaps, and double-stopping flourishes of No. 2.
The indefatigable duo Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier join in the posthumously published Carnival of the Animals, after a highly successful recording of Concertos by Poulenc with Edward Gardner, Disc of the Week in The Sunday Times. They offer the original version, which features a glass harmonica (normally substituted by a glockenspiel). Louis Lortie is also the soloist in the entertaining fantasia Africa, which incorporates folk tunes of the different countries in which it was composed and which is brought off with consummate zest, as well as in the most characteristic and probably challenging of the composer’s keyboard pieces, the Caprice-Valse Wedding-cake, written for the second wedding of the composer’s virtuosic pianist friend Caroline Montigny-Rémaury.