Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos [CD]

Excellent recordings. Pascal Roge plays Saint-Saens very poetically and good balance with the orchestra. Occasinally the strings sound a little thin but this is normal with cd's. Overall a beautiful cd which really captures the essence of Saint-Saens

This set is slightly odd in more ways than one, but not ways that seem to me to matter much. Not when compared with the set's virtues anyway. I have not experienced one instant's doubt over awarding five stars, and I recommend the set wholeheartedly, but please take note of a few points regarding the recorded quality, as they may weigh more heavily with you than they do with me.

The first oddity is that no fewer than three top orchestras have been engaged to participate in this programme of only five not very long or unduly taxing concertos. The most successful items are the second and fifth, in which the orchestra is the Royal Philharmonic. However I suspect that the real issue has nothing to do with orchestras and everything to do with technical details. Concertos 1, 3 and 4 were recorded in the Kingsway Hall in Holborn in the heart of London, but the town hall in unfashionable Walthamstow happens to house one of the finest recording environments in the world. Concertos 2 and 5 were done there, and under a different producer from the others. The entire series appears to have been recorded (analogue) in 1981, but not only has it featured different orchestras, different recording venues and different producers, the type of sound also differs among concertos 1,3 and 4. The piano tone in no 3 is a little pinched and lacking in bloom, (this one has its own sound engineer), and the effect in no 1 is even slightly peculiar. The piano sounds too close, but in fact not too loud and it does not dominate the orchestra. To tell the truth, it's not unattractive, but it's hardly a model of how to do things either. Most importantly, it does not prevent us from enjoying the languid effortless brilliance of Roge's passagework, still less his elegant patrician phrasing.

This soloist is simply perfect for these concertos. To hear the whole effect at its very best try the last concerto, which gives the set a brilliant send-off. However nothing that Roge does here is anything short of superlative. Also, although there are three orchestras there is only one conductor, namely Dutoit, and I am coming to associate his name with excellence in everything he does. I prefer to steer clear of the question whether French ethnicity confers special insights into French music, but presumably it does no harm. I have not sought Roge out specifically when looking for certain works of Faure and Ravel, but when looking through reviews for guidance his was the name that kept coming up, and I have not gone wrong yet by following the recommendations I was given. The whole sense of this set is one of easy authenticity. These artists understand this music with their heads, sure, but they have another organ of understanding too, the marrow of their bones, which is the same stuff as the composer's was.

It is also apparent that they love the music, and so they ought to in my own view, because I love it too. If I may say so, some very foolish and insolent criticism has been levelled at Saint-Saens, not least by Tovey at his silliest. Music so elegant, accomplished, original and beautiful as this does not grow on trees, and when Ravel was starting work on his own concerto he linked Saint-Saens as a model with the greatest concerto-writer of them all, Mozart. Roge's cool assurance and patrician poise are the perfect counterpart. You can appreciate it more or less anywhere on the two discs - as a random example in the way he and Dutoit ease back the tempo for the second theme in the second movement of the second work - and it is a source of sustained enjoyment throughout the last concerto.

Whatever we think of Saint-Saens and however we ultimately rate him, he never seems to do anything badly, which is more than I could say for his nearest parallel Mendelssohn, and come to that more than I could say for Beethoven or Wagner. It is music with perfect manners, and here we have a soloist similarly gifted. Despite some ups and downs in the engineering, there is nothing here than came within un kilometre of spoiling my enjoyment. Even the unpretentious liner note is not bad, partly because it is unpretentious. There are 70 minutes of music per disc, give a couple on the first disc and take a compensating couple on the second. Concerto no 3 has had to be split between the discs - oh what hardships we have to endure - and the recording even at its best is only ADD. Take comfort from the asking price if either of these factors bothers you. Myself, I take my comfort from the music.

If your CD collection, like mine, has next to nothing by Saint-Saens in it then do go for this remarkably cheap complete set of the Piano Concertos. Saint-Saens was a master craftsman and his piano and orchestral writing is very fine, with many moods and atmospheres set beautifully. Pascal Roge presents all the works with appropriate combinations of brilliance and subtlety, and the support given by Charles Dutoit with all the three different orchestras is beautifully consistent. There is so much to enjoy here, whatever the critics and posterity may have to say about Saint-Saens in general.