Saint-Saens: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (SACD review)

Also, Symphony in A major. Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege. BIS BIS-2460 SACD.

By John J. Puccio

The Third Symphony, the “Organ” Symphony of French composer Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) so overshadowed most of his other work that one would hardly know he even wrote three previous symphonies. Of course, his other music like the Second Piano Concerto, the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, the Danse macabre, the Samson and Delilah opera, and The Carnival of the Animals also became famous. But they didn’t quite take on the life his “Organ” Symphony did. So, here we have his first three symphonies, which I admit I could hardly remember, it had been so long since I last heard them. Accordingly, I took down my old recordings by Jean Martinon (EMI and Brilliant Classics) of the works to refresh my memory, and I can honestly say that these new readings by French violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Royal Liege Philharmonic Orchestra do the music proud.

So, Saint-Saens wrote his Symphony No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 2 in 1853 at the ripe old age of eighteen. He had been a child prodigy at the piano and wrote his First Symphony at about the time he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire. It’s filled with youthful ambition and military gestures (particularly in the Finale), all the popular musical idioms of the time. While Maestro Kantorow takes the music a little faster than Martinon did, it’s not excessively quick. It does, however, provide an extra bounce to the score, especially noticeable in the second-movement Scherzo. Even the lovely little Adagio benefits from Kantorow’s hand. Not that it displaces the Martinon recording, but it certainly more than holds its own.

It would be another half dozen years before Saint-Saens would write his Symphony No. 2 in A minor, Op. 55 (in 1859, although he would not publish it until 1878). It’s a cyclical work, linking several themes in different movements by using several common elements. The piece is compact and orchestrated lightly, sounding much like a sinfonietta. However, because of the criticism he received for these early symphonies, Saint-Saens would not return to the composition of a symphony for close to thirty years and then created his masterpiece. Anyway, in No. 2 we get an appropriately reserved performance from Kantorow, with the final two movements enlivened by a properly upbeat spirit. Nevertheless, despite the conductor’s best efforts, these are not masterpieces of the Romantic Age but merely Saint-Saens’s youthful imitations of it, so we cannot expect silk purses. They are, however, fun to listen to, if sparingly, and under Kantorow’s direction (or Martinon’s) represent as good interpretations as you’ll likely to find.

Accompanying the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 (and opening the program) is an even earlier work, the Symphony in A major, which Saint-Saens wrote in 1850, while fifteen years old and still in school. Musical scholars believe it was probably a classroom exercise. Still, it has a noteworthy Romantic spirit to it, borrowing as it does from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, even Mozart. Saint-Saens didn’t see much merit to it, though, and, consequently, it probably never got a public performance in the composer’s lifetime, or at least not one we know of. It was only finally published in 1974. Again Kantorow gives us a smooth, polished reading that, if anything, reveals how lightweight the material is. I couldn’t help being reminded that I’ve always found the music “cute.” That is, it’s almost comical in its imitation of other composers. It is, in fact, cotton candy for the ear (a sticky metaphor at best), which, regardless, makes for pleasant, noncritical listening.

Producer Jens Braun and engineer Ingo Petry of Take5 Music Production recorded the symphonies for hybrid SACD at the Salle Philharmonique, Liege, Belgium in April and December 2019. You can play the disc in SACD two-channel stereo and multichannel surround sound from an SACD player or in two-channel stereo from a regular CD player. I listened to the SACD two-channel stereo layer.

As with many other BIS productions, this one is warm and smooth, with a natural feel to the hall and its environs. The miking appears a tad farther away from the players than one usually finds, but it adds to the recording’s sense of realism. One is simply a bit farther back in the concert hall and not in the first row. Accordingly, the orchestral spread is also a touch narrower than we normally hear. More important, it’s realistic and doesn’t take much away from the clarity of the reproduction. It’s a welcome change of pace from most of today’s close-up recordings.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below: