Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 3; Africa; Rhapsodie d’Auvergne; Wedding Cake Waltz

Descharmes, Romain, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Soustrot, Marc

8.573477

The second disc in a complete recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’ five piano concertos from the French pianist, Romain Descharmes, and the Malmö Symphony. Written the year following his considerable success with the Second concerto, the Third has always stood deep in its shadow. Not that it is in any way inferior, but he could not again find those immediately ‘catchy’ tunes the previous work had offered.
Yet place it in the expressive and limpid hands of Descharmes, that were the hallmark of the great French pianists of yesteryear, and you will then question its present neglect. I commented in my review of the first disc that ‘you must recall its year of composition (1869) which pre-dates Tchaikovsky’s concertos, and Rachmaninov was not yet born’, for then you will appreciate just how new and fresh the music must have been at the time. The disc is completed by three concert works for piano and orchestra, the earliest, the Rhapsody d’Auvergne from 1884, built around a folksong he heard sung by a washer-woman while travelling through the Auvergne region of France. Full of lightweight happiness, it makes an ideal foil for Africa, a score of a substance and length that would have been an ideal concerto movement.
Finally his ‘Wedding Cake’ Caprice-Valse, a short piece that once enjoyed a ‘pop’ classic status. Another absolute winner for Descharmes, perfectly partnered by the Malmö Symphony with their chief conductor, Marc Soustrot, and in first-class sound. • © 2017 David’s Review Corner

CD x 1

Naxos

4/24/17

747313347773

ICMA 'Nominee' (2017)
MusicWeb International: 'Recording of the Month' (2017)