This packed SACD is part of a series of ten or more Cala SACDs devoted to a very creative sampling of various composer’s works. Most have shorter selections, although the Mussorgsky disc has Pictures at an Exhibition and a previous all-Saint-Saens disc had the composer’s organ symphony. Saint-Saens is the first composer to rate two discs in the series, and perhaps that explains why every one of these ten selections is unusual, offbeat, and as far as you could get from the chestnut appellation. Conductor Geoffrey Simon deserves kudos for his imaginative programming on all his recordings.
Well, you say, how about the Danse macabre? Ah, ha, but this is not your normal Danse macabre – it’s the original less-than-three-minute version for tenor and orchestra. It began life as a song for voice and piano, and when Saint-Saens was expanding it to the orchestral tone poem we all know, he also arranged it for tenor and orchestra. A couple of the tunes in the Samson and Delilah Fantasy will be familiar, but this is a rarely-heard operatic potpourri dreamt up by the composer of the Ballet Egyptien – a once popular instrumental number in concerts.
The opening Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra is a delight, with Saint-Saens mixing colorful rhythms and tone colors into a musical postcard something like what Respighi continued later. A folksong from Tunisia is used at the big conclusion of the work. Pianist Gwendolyn Mok handles the virtuoso piano part very well. Another surprise is the quarter-hour-length Muse and the Poet which is a Grand Duo for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. The composer described it as “a conversation between the two instruments…”
– John Sunier
