Customer Reviews

Piano Concertos 1-5

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Saint-Saens' piano music embodies all that is good about the Romantic era: long, haunting melodic lines, innovative themes and a particular gift for making the music fit together in a quasi-Classical fashion. That said, I can't say enough good things about the playing on this CD. Collard's performance is so virtuostic and effortless that the music sounds as though it's just coming out of thin air, rather than having a human laboring over it. Match this with the awesomely powerful yet extremely skilled orchestral backing from Previn and the RPO, and you have a CD that got me into Saint-Saens even though I'd heard almost nothing by him before. This CD set will make you pay attention to it. Worth every penny.

Saint-Saens' set of Piano Concerti are relatively little known but consistently rewarding nevertheless. Listeners familiar only with the popular Second Concerto need not worry that the other concerti deserve their relative neglect. On the contrary, all of these concerti are remarkable for their high level of melodic invention, with Saint-Saens' gift for turning out haunting, ear-tickling melody abundantly in evidence. There is nothing stuffy nor trite about the writing, either. Moreover, these are concerti written for pianists by a pianist: the piano writing demonstrates an understanding and love for the piano that only a pianist could possess. All in all, I would say these works rank in quality at least with Tchaikovsky's Second and Third Concerti.

These recordings seem pretty hard to beat. Collard makes the very best use of his musicality and virtuosity without becoming self-promoting. Previn, always a highly sympathetic accompanist, is at his best here. The sound ranges from very good to excellent.

I have never liked mixes with too much emphasis on the piano. While EMI's final result is far from the best recordings, it is far from atrocious, as some "ears" seem to point out in earlier reviews.

I will keep this review brief: it's more a written reaction from listening to this set straight through, five concertos in a row (and two extra pieces), nearly every time I play the discs. It is as if I must listen from the beginning to the end, like a well orchestrated, well organized, well plotted programmatic music album. And this is only, in part, due to Collard's fantastic playing -- there are two accidental "wrong-notes" in the whole set which *was* a slight disappointment, until I realized that I wanted a performance, not a digitally edited reconstruction.

The credit for this music goes to Mr. Saint-Saens! The man was extraordinary, sublime, luminous, and these pieces remind me of the painted films of Mr. Brakhage...whose pieces are shown silent usually...and I don't wonder, somehow, if there is really some connection, here...between humans who are less grounded, and more in tune with something higher...

The piano concerto is my favorite form of classical expression. I own many (not enough) concertos and while I find myself playing a little Rachmaninoff here and there, I will explore Saint-Saens' five concertos all in one sitting, nearly every time.

Bravo Collard et Previn!

Such scintillating music! Saint-Saëns' piano music is a worthy successor to Mendelssohn's glittering scores. In this compilation of the French composer's piano cum orchestra music, the Second Concerto is the best known work (and deservedly so!). I like the Fifth, "The Egyptian," very much as well. (Richer has a fabulous account of this "oriental" score.) The Fourth is also performed on occasion, with its catchy, headstrong last movement. It's a mystery why the Third remains unknown; it shows off the soloist in a flattering light. I would judge the First Concerto as a student effort, although a commendable one. The "Wedding Cake" and "Africa" are delicious bon-bons thrown into the mix.

Pianist Jean-Philippe Collard displays a remarkable digital facility-which is a requisite for would-be performers of Saint-Saëns's piano pieces. Collard is also a poet, shaping the musical lines elegantly and effectively. André Previn's transparent yet strong orchestral accompaniment provides a solid stratum for the soloist to float over.

I've heard Ciccolini's and Hough's sets of these concerti, but this is my favorite by a wide margin. Hough's has been highly praised elsewhere, and I certainly agree that his technique is astounding. He plays these concerti faster than anyone, and that is precisely my complaint. Hough seems so busy moving through these works at warp three hyperdrive that he takes just about NO time to stop and smell the roses--and there are plenty in this music.

Not that Collard is slow. He can glitter just well as Hough, but he also knows when to seduce--listen to the second theme of the scherzo of No.2--the way he and Previn teasingly hang on to a note just a microsecond before playfully plunging into the phrase itself. They don't make a big deal of this, and these performances are NOT "mannered," but the listener is drawn in, and the sensation is almost physical. This is only one instance of the felicities of agogics and phrasing in these performances.

It's just a pity this couldn't have been rounded out to a trio of CD's to include the Rapsodie d'Auvergne and Allegro appassionato also recorded by this team. I own both this set and Hough's, but I listen to this one a LOT more. Also, the price is certainly more attractive than Hyperion's, although for me that is NOT the issue.

I consider myself quite an experienced listener.

The recordings found on this disc are of average performance. The lacking value is that EMI has decided to "degrade" the recording performance, and thus the high tones are cut out.

The piano sounds as if it was recording from inside a closet, while the orchestra sounds as if it was recorded farthest from the row in a stadium.