Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 Romain Descharmes, Malmö Symphony Orchestra & Marc Soustrot

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 17, R. 185:
• 1 I. Andante - Allegro assai 11:56
• 2 II. Andante sostenuto, quasi adagio 08:02
• 3 III. Allegro con fuoco 07:05
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22, R. 190:
• 4 I. Andante sostenuto 11:34
• 5 II. Allegro scherzando 05:58
• 6 III. Presto 07:02
• Allegro appassionato in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 70:
• 7 Allegro appassionato in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 70 (version for piano and orchestra) 06:45
• Total Runtime 58:22

Info for Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

The sheer attractiveness of Saint-Saëns’s music has ensured its immortality in the canon of French romantic composers. Spanning almost four decades, his five piano concertos vary widely in character but offer some of his most exciting if unorthodox creations, and represent an important evolutionary phase in the French piano concerto. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D major, widely considered the first by a major French composer, is a youthful and exuberant piece, and the virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor is one of Saint-Saëns’s most popular and frequently performed works in any genre.

Romain Descharmes, piano
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Marc Soustrot, conductor

Romain Descharmes
Since his noteworthy début with the Orchestre de Paris in May 2012, Romain Descharmes has established himself as one of the foremost French pianists of his generation. Highly regarded by his fellow musicians, he is in demand for concerts with orchestras and also for recitals and chamber music. Winner of the Dublin Competition, he has appeared in concerts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, France, Japan, China and elsewhere, collaborating with the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi and Ingo Metzmacher, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under Enrique Mazzola, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Marc Soustrot, the Orchestre National de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Tugan Sokhiev and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchesta, among others. He has been the guest of several renowned festivals and venues, including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie. Romain Descharmes also dedicates some of his time to teaching and is a professor at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Paris.

The Malmö Symphony Orchestra (MSO)
gives concerts every week, demonstrating its skill in broad and multifaceted programmes. The MSO proudly carries forward the traditions of the symphonic repertoire, and also strives to bring it forward into the future. Several recordings have gained international accolades, including first prize at the Cannes Classical Award and the annual Diapason d’Or awards. Its recording of Berwald’s symphonies, conducted by Sixten Ehrling, was nominated for one of the record industry’s most prestigious prizes, the Gramophone Award. Releases on Naxos of music by the American composer Charles Ives have won great acclaim and were named Editor’s Choice/Recording of the month by Gramophone in October 2008. The Naxos recordings of Franz Schmidtʼs Symphonies with former principal conductor Vassily Sinaisky have been equally acknowledged and acclaimed in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. Sinaisky has been honorary conductor of the MSO since 2011. Two Naxos Grieg recordings received outstanding reviews in The New York Times. In August 2013 the MSO and Marc Soustrot, who has been the orchestra’s principal conductor since the 2011/2012 season, began recording the complete works of Camille Saint-Saëns for Naxos.

Marc Soustrot
is considered a specialist in the field of French orchestral music. Formerly the principal conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire, the Beethoven Orchester, Bonn, and Het Brabants Orkest, Eindhoven, he is chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, Soustrot has worked with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Munich Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Filharmonie Antwerpen, the Residentie Orkest Den Haag and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Barcelona and Tokyo. He has worked at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Semperoper, Dresden, the Teatro Real, Madrid, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, La Monnaie/ De Munt, Brussels, The Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen and the Norwegian National Opera, Oslo. Marc Soustrot was awarded the title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2008.

Booklet for Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2