Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5 Alexandre Kantorow, Tapiola Sinfonietta & Jean-Jacques Kantorow

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921): Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 29:
• 1 Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 29: I. Moderato assai 13:11
• 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 29: II. Andante 06:33
• 3 Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 29: III. Allegro non troppo 07:20
• Piano Concerto No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 44:
• 4 Piano Concerto No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 44: I. Allegro moderato - Andante 11:33
• 5 Piano Concerto No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 44: II. Allegro vivace - Andante - Allegro 12:56
• Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 "Egyptian":
• 6 Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 "Egyptian": I. Allegro animato 10:38
• 7 Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 "Egyptian": II. Andante 11:12
• 8 Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 "Egyptian": III. Molto allegro 05:50
• Total Runtime 01:19:13

Info for Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5

Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Tapiola Sinfonietta have championed the music of Saint-Saëns on a series of acclaimed discs, and are now joined by the young Alexandre Kantorow –son of the conductor – for a survey of his works for piano and orchestra. In 1858, Saint-Saëns became the first major French composer to write a piano concerto, but on this first disc of two the Kantorows present the three last concertos. Composed over a period of almost 30 years (1868 – 1896), these are highly individual works: Piano Concerto No. 3 is a bold attempt to reconcile Classical form with a Lisztian pianistic brio, No. 4 employs an unusual formal scheme in which themes are reused in a cyclic manner and, finally, the ‘Egyptian’ (No. 5), named after the second movement, which in the composer’s own words describes ‘a sort of Eastern journey that goes all the way to the Far East’.

Alexandre Kantorow, piano
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Jean-Jacques Kantorow, conductor

Alexandre Kantorow
Having brought out his first CD last year to critical acclaim, Alexandre has released his second, on the BIS label, that onsist of three of Liszt’s piano concertos, recorded in Finland with the Tapiola Sinfonietta under his father, conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

Alexandre has been performing these concertos live as part of his international concert schedule, taking in Osaka, Japan, under Augustin Dumay, and Taipei, Taiwan. He’ll also be playing other pieces by Liszt nearer to home, on tour with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.

France gets a new concert hall this year, in the form of the much anticipated Philharmonie de Paris, and Alexandre has performed Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy there as part of the inaugural season.

Brahms is another of Alexandre’s favourite composers, and he is looking forward to performing his Piano Concerto No. 2 early in the year.

Born in Paris in 1997, Alexandre fits his many professional engagements around his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, under Franck Braley. A full-time career as a soloist beckons, but Alexandre still enjoys performing with other musicians too. LAst summer, for example, he’ll be playing chamber music at festivals in France, as well as performing Addinsell’s film music the Warsaw Concerto, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in its original version with jazz band.

Booklet for Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5