It’s good to see this collection of Saint-Saëns piano concertos coming back in tandem with such rarities as Cyprès et Lauriers for Organ and Orchestra, the Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, La muse et le poète (for violin, cello, and orchestra), and the two small works for horn and orchestra. All are well performed and acceptably recorded, though the main attraction remains Gabrielle Tacchino’s charming way with the piano concertos. An excellent pianist in a lighter vein, his artistry might have been tailor-made for these works (as anyone familiar with his benchmark reading of Poulenc’s Piano Concerto on EMI might well have guessed).
Tacchino is particularly adept at tossing off the less familiar works–Concertos Nos. 1, 3, and 5–and he understands that elegance and ease count for more than raw power in this music. In Concertos Nos. 2 and 4 competition is stiff, and everyone will have his own favorite version–and at the moment there are several other very fine collections of all five concertos available (see reference recordings above) at what is effectively budget price (two for the price of one). Still, if you love these works, you should have this. Froment provides decent accompaniments, and while the sonics remain a touch “tight” and dry, the overall quality is perfectly listenable and very well balanced.
