Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Transcriptions for Piano
Cyprien Katsaris (piano)
rec. 2020-21, Église Évangélique Saint-Marcel, Paris
Bonus DVD: Silent film L’assassinat du duc de Guise (1908)
Piano 21 P21-064 [2 CDs: 136]
Have times ever been anything but good for the music of Saint-Saëns? A composer with feet sturdily planted well into the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, he has left his mark. Who knows: he may yet rise to even greater eminence.
Most recently Warner Classics did him proud with a 34 CD Saint-Saëns boxed Edition. Warner’s predecessor, EMI, was very active through the efforts of ORTF, Ulf Hoelscher and Jean Martinon. Before that there were now much prized classic readings from Jeanne-Marie Darré in the piano concertos. The all-conquering Warner box is also winningly distinguished by each card sleeve (remember, there are 34 CDs) displaying a range of paintings by French artists.
The chamber music has not really had much of a day but the tone poems are well thought of. That said, I suffer a sort of burnt-out fatigue these days on hearing Le Rouet d’Omphale, Jeunesse d’Hercule and Phaéton. Again, these are works more often encountered on disc than sitting prettily in concert hall programmes.
Classic, successfully recorded, Saint-Saëns is not hard to find. Leonid Kogan recorded a still unmatched and delicious Havanaise with Charles Munch and the Bostonians. Ulf Hoelscher made a triumph out of the Caprice Andalou; such a delightful freshener after years of the brilliant yet care-worn Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Havanaise is a real sleeper. Another piece rising to wakefulness is La muse et le poète for violin, cello and orchestra.
I never could get a handle on the three violin concertos. Rather like the Prokofiev Second Concerto, despite its plum status, I find these works, even the much recorded Third, resisting my affections. The same goes for the two cello concertos. Perhaps I am the one that is lacking.
The Third Symphony (“The Organ Symphony”) is in two big Bosticked-together movements. Of the five symphonies, two un-unnumbered, it has for many years been a much-admired favourite: there have been multiple recordings. I lean towards versions by Louis Frémaux (EMI CFP) in his CBSO days and Charles Munch (RCA-BMG) with the, for me, exotically and memorably named Berj Zamkochian at the organ. It is a diamantine score which revels in the contrasts of thunderous majesty, good tunes and disarming sweetness. Astonishment gives way to affection as parts of the symphony have been used to devastating effect on the sound-track for the film “Babe”.
The symphony’s slow introduction sets the scene for a nervy yet almost mechanical hurly-burly that denotes in much the same way as the Second Piano Concerto – a suitability for piano roll treatment. The solo piano rendering of this luxurious work is the handiwork of Percy Goetschius and Katsaris but Gustave Samazeuilh had a hand in the transcribing of the placidly steady Poco Adagio. The accelerations in the Allegro moderato – start of the second movement – are undeniably exciting and Katsaris is evidently fully in sympathy. At no stage does he admit defeat or even compromise in the process of rendering down this well-known orchestral work to solo piano.
Le Carnaval des Animaux serves as a familiar breeze of cold enlivening air. Its Pictures at an Exhibition feel is moderated by the witty familiarities of Fossiles and the un-erotic but certainly seductive Le Cygne. The Victor Hugo Hymn is a placidly confident high-flown piece of contented stuff. The Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila – his most successful opera – has for years been a popular filler for conductors such as Beecham. Its jumpy-jerky jollity, with over-tones of Ketèlbey’s In a Persian Garden, is relieved by appealingly darker inflections. It served as mulch for later oriental works by Roussel, Tomasi and Schmitt and generally pandered to the French taste for the Orient and the Départements Outre-Mers.
Rather like Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns lusted after operatic success and kept on trying. There are twelve operas, two of them opéra-comiques. Few have been recorded – at least as mainstream releases – beyond the obvious Samson et Dalila. Edition Bru-Zane has begun excavating the others and Chandos some years ago issued a CD of the little opera La Princesse Jaune. The grandly staged Henry VIII is being mounted at the Fisher Center on the East bank of the Hudson river later this month (July 2023) with the tirelessly inspired Leon Botstein conducting. That’s part of the Bard Festival.
We turn now to this set’s second CD. A broadcast of the Artur Rubinstein RCA LP (the one that also includes the de Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain) of the Second Concerto drew me close to Saint-Saëns. Those five piano concertos have always appealed to me as do the other non-concerto works for piano and orchestra, especially Africa. The Fifth Concerto Egyptian would be my next favourite. Georges Bizet, of all people, with re-touching by Katsaris, is responsible for the transcription of the Second Concerto which charms and thunders along.
The liquid strut of Africa is heard here in a version that is the composer’s own handiwork. It is decorative rather than decorous and not especially exotic. The Allegro appassionato trades in dark rhetorical filigree. The Valse Canariotte – a farewell to the Canary Islands – is almost as affectionate as the blithe Valse nonchalante. Next, we hear another of the composer’s lollipops: the Danse Macabre, which is heard in a reduction by none other than Liszt, a composer also at peace with Satanic musical inspirations.
The piano solo version of the Introduction and five Tableaux of L’assassinat du duc de Guise – a silent film from 1908 – is complete with the classic storyboards between, and sometimes within, each tableau. The music – as we can tell from the DVD which is the third disc here – vamps up to the cliché-ed treatment onscreen. The Introduction rumbles deep at the bass end of the keyboard; a bit like “The Night Watch”. Afterwards there’s derring-do and rapier play in a watered-down version of the much later Korngold way with such scenes. It ends up being rather balletic. Saint-Saëns does find a tincture of horrid tragedy but even at its most extreme the piece looks to Dvořák’s Erben-based tone poems. The assassination is rendered in a long melodramatic tableau. The short finale is stormy. As a whole, the music of this suite lacks the seeming fluency of the other works here. Perhaps the visual dimension cramped the composer’s expressive style. As a curiosity it is worth hearing and having. If you hanker after the fuller ensemble score then you need to lay hands on the recording by Ensemble Musique Oblique (Harmonia Mundi Musique d’Abord HMA 1951472). This is for bassoon, cello, clarinet, double bass, flute, glockenspiel, harmonium and horn. That version is dedicated it to the composer and music critic Fernand Le Borne (1862-1929).
A rare and valuable coup is the inclusion of the little silent film L’assassinat du duc de Guise on the DVD. The music is – as we have heard on CD 2 – a transcription for solo piano by Léon Roques (1839-1923). It runs to 17:50. The film itself, from the first decade of the last century, has been very nicely cleaned up – allowance being made for one brief bit of film damage at 12:50. The watcher is never left in any doubt about the plot’s evil and feckless ones. In this sense it rather emulates the old Hollywood cliché of leering ‘baddies’ in black. It has to be said that the doomed Duc de Guise is the very picture of foppish nobility with a high opinion of his right to invulnerability and triumph. The nicely prolonged assassination scene – no blood – is conducted from room to room. The make-up is not as toe-curlingly extreme as that seen in early Californian talkies. The music is commandingly forward.
The long and satisfying liner-notes are by Loïc Serrurier in English, German and French. Add to this plenty of photos of the major players and actors and notes about the play by Melissa Arnaud.
The sound throughout is full-on and quite overpoweringly spectacular. Katsaris tests the Bechstein D-282 Concert Grand close to tolerance and it sustains the challenge. One wonders if an emergency piano technician was on hand for piano CPR throughout the sessions in Église Évangelique St Marcel, Paris in April-July 2020 and January 2021. You might want to sit back from the loudspeakers as what emerges from them is more of an agent of tensile imperial muscle rather than a relaxant. Phew! It rather reminded me of that RCA-Presto revival in which Raymond Lewenthal gave us an Alkan recital.
Rob Barnett
Previous review: Rob Challinor (January 2023)
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Contents
CD 1
Le carnaval des animaux transcription: (Lucien Garban (1877-1959) / Cyprien Katsaris)]
Hymne à Victor Hugo in D major Op. 69 (transcription: Camille Saint-Saëns)
Samson et Dalila, Op. 47 R. 288: Acte III Bacchanale (transcription Saint-Saëns) Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 ‘Organ Symphony’ R 176 (transcription: Percy Goetschius (1843-1953) / Cyprien Katsaris)
CD 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 R 190 (transcription: Georges Bizet)
Africa – Fantasie for piano & orchestra Op. 89 R. 204 – Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre (version for piano solo)
Allegro appassionato, Op. 70
Valse canariote, Op. 88, R. 43
Valse nonchalante, Op. 110, R. 48
Danse macabre, Op. 40 R171 – Poème symphonique d’après une poésie de Henri Cazalis (transcription: Franz Liszt/Cyprien Katsaris)
L’assassinat du duc de Guise, Op. 128, R. 331 (1908) (transcription: Léon Roques 1839-1923)
DVD Video Region: All
L’assassinat du duc de Guise (1908) (17 mins)
