Saint-saëns: Africa, Jota Aragonese, Etc / Simon, Mok, Et Al

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

The “Africa” Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra...I believe to be one of Saint-Saëns’s major works. It is, for all extents and purposes, a piano concerto by another name, and it contains some of the composer’s most impressive keyboard-writing.

Saint-Saëns, it is true, outlived most of his critics, but he was perhaps his own worst enemy; for among his many fine works of enduring value there can be found much dross. Undoubtedly, it was his natural genius—the gift by which the writing of music comes unbidden and with ease—that led him to toss off pieces that could be banal and trite. But even at its worst, Read more Saint-Saëns’s music has flair and a melodic charm to it that makes it hard to resist. With the exception of the “Africa” Fantasy, which is one of the composer’s great if lesser-known works, most of the pieces on this disc fall into the category of bonbons and “Saint-Saëns-lite.”

For a staging of Jane Dieulafoy’s play Parysatis, Saint-Saëns wrote incidental music to be performed at the Béziers festival in 1902. Four short orchestral excerpts in the form of airs de ballet are heard here. Written in the composer’s exotic “Middle Eastern” style, the music is not entirely dissimilar from some of what we hear in Samson et Dalila.

From the Middle East, we travel to Spain for La jota aragonese, a piece based on a traditional Spanish folk dance. Published in 1881, its scoring includes castanets and tambourines for local color.

The Grand Fantasy from Samson et Dalila is not by Saint-Saëns. It is an orchestral potpourri or opera medley (popular at the time) patched together by Alexandre Luigini (1850–1907)—of Ballet Égyptien fame—based on melodies from Saint-Saëns’s most popular opera. Whether Saint-Saëns was aware of it, ever heard it, or approved of it, the booklet note doesn’t tell us. This was my first encounter with the piece, and I wouldn’t call it the high point of the program.

The Tarantelle for flute, clarinet, and orchestra is an early work, first presented in 1857 at a Paris soirée attended by Rossini. Saint-Saëns must surely have been acquainted with Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, for the main theme of the Tarantelle bears a striking resemblance to the symphony’s concluding saltarello movement.

If the Parysatis excerpts are in Saint-Saëns’s exotic Middle Eastern mode, and La jota aragonese is in his Spanish mode, the Sarabande and Rigaudon may be said to be in the composer’s antique Baroque mode. The Sarabande sets a solo violin against a backdrop of strings only, while the full orchestra joins in for the Rigaudon.

A rarity indeed is Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre as heard here in its version for tenor and orchestra, set to a poem by Henri Cazalis. This version is only once removed from Saint-Saëns’s original, which was for voice and piano. The popular orchestra only version apparently came later.

Music and politics rarely mix, and they don’t sit particularly well together in the Marche militaire française from Saint-Saëns’s Suite algérienne, which weaves traditional Arab melodies into a French military march to depict Algeria’s absorption into France during the period of colonization.

A product of Saint-Saëns’s waning years is The Muse and the Poet, a rhapsodic duo for violin, cello, and orchestra in memory of his friend Madame Henry Caruette. It’s a lengthy work that sings sweetly and nostalgically for most of its 15 minutes, but takes a scintillating virtuosic turn towards the end.

Seventh in Saint-Saëns’s list of operatic ventures is the five-act Ascanio from which the bouncy Valse-Finale is drawn.

I’ve saved for last the first work on the disc, the “Africa” Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, for this I believe to be one of Saint-Saëns’s major works. It is, for all extents and purposes, a piano concerto by another name, and it contains some of the composer’s most impressive keyboard-writing. Written in 1890 while he was on holiday in the Canary Islands—much of Saint-Saëns’s best music was written on location in exotic places—the piece is a brilliant tour-de-force for the soloist with a colorful and often sweeping orchestral accompaniment.

Except for the Fantasy, none of the music here is choice Saint-Saëns, but the disc does contain some rarely heard tidbits, and performances and recording are outstanding. This is a far better and more recommendable release than the companion Requiem and “Organ” Symphony with these same forces. Mainly for the Fantasy, but also to fill in some missing gaps for Saint-Saëns fanciers, recommended.

- Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Issue 31:3 (Jan/Feb 2008)
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1.

Africa, Op. 89 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Gwendolyn Mok (Piano)
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1891; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 11 Minutes 8 Secs.

2.

Parysatis: Airs de Ballet by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1902; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 7 Minutes 57 Secs.

3.

Jota aragonese, Op. 64 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1880; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 3 Minutes 45 Secs.

4.

Fantasy on themes from Saint-Saëns' "Samson et Dalila" by Alexandre Luigini
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 13 Minutes 35 Secs.

5.

Tarantella for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 6 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Susan Milan (Flute), James Campbell (Clarinet)
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1857; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 5 Minutes 36 Secs.

6.

Sarabande et Rigaudon, Op. 93 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Tina Gruenberg (Violin)
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1892; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 8 Minutes 41 Secs.

7.

Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Anthony Roden (Tenor)
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1872; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 2 Minutes 49 Secs.
Language: French

8.

Marche Militaire Française by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1880; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 4 Minutes 20 Secs.

9.

La muse et le poète, Op. 132 by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Robert Truman (Cello), Stephanie Chase (Violin)
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1910; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 15 Minutes 16 Secs.

10.

Ascanio: Valse-Finale by Camille Saint-Saëns
Conductor: Geoffrey Simon
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1890; France
Date of Recording: 1993
Venue: All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
Length: 3 Minutes 55 Secs.

Africa (Saint-Saëns)

Marche militaire française (Saint-Saëns)

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