In the final year of his long life Camille Saint-Saëns composed three woodwind sonatas that prove as inspired, tuneful, and exquisitely crafted as the best of his earlier chamber works. The Ensemble Villa Musica members offer excellent performances that should satisfy collectors who wish to acquire all three sonatas together. At times oboist Ingo Goritzki’s tart, penetrating tone resembles an English horn, while Dag Jensen’s suave control of the bassoon sonata’s lyrical writing in the instrument’s higher tessitura strikingly contrasts to the gruff staccato he produces in the bottom range throughout the Allegro Scherzando. Similarly, in the clarinet sonata soloist Ulf Rosenhäuser obtains maximum tonal contrast between the finale’s scurrying passagework and the Lento’s spooky, sustained low notes.
Leonard Hokanson’s sensitive and supportive presence at the piano graces all three works, although I marginally prefer the Nash Ensemble’s Ian Brown (Hyperion) for his more assertive projection and sharply honed sense of motivic interplay. Compare, for example, the oboe sonata’s Molto allegro march movement or the slow, dark chords that open the clarinet sonata’s aforementioned Lento. Although Saint-Saëns did not live to write the flute sonata he intended, the modest yet pretty Romance Op. 37 provides a lovely vehicle for Jean-Claude Gérard’s clear, focused tone. MDG’s well-defined engineering creates a sharp-edged patina in the rather cobbled together caprice based on traditional Danish and Russian tunes, contrasting with the Nash Ensemble’s more mellifluous blend and rounded-off phrasing. A first-class release.
