{"id":48193,"date":"2017-10-11T16:34:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=48193"},"modified":"2017-10-11T16:34:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:34:06","slug":"record-keeping-we-cant-forget-montreal-symphonys-saint-saens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/10\/11\/record-keeping-we-cant-forget-montreal-symphonys-saint-saens\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | We Can’t Forget Montreal Symphony’s Saint-Sa\u00ebns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saint-Sa\u00ebns:
Saint-Sa\u00ebns: Violin Concertos (complete). Violin Concerto No. 1 in A major Op. 20. Violin Concerto No. 2 in C major Op. 58. Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor Op. 61. Andrew Wan, violin. Orchestra symphonique de Montr\u00e9al\/Kent Nagano. Analekta AN 28770. Total Time: 74:04.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While this CD review column is generally devoted to new recordings, it is simply not possible \u2014 even in these times of declining classical record sales for one person to listen to every recent release; as a result, some worthy new CDs slip by unnoticed and unheard. One such CD is a 2015 release from the Quebec label Analekta, featuring all three Saint-Sa\u00ebns Violin Concertos performed by Andrew Wan, concertmaster of l\u2019Orchestre Symphonique de Montr\u00e9al (OSM) since 2008 and a founding member of the New Orford Quartet. This is a terrific recording and deserves attention.<\/p>\n

Saint-Sa\u00ebns wrote a great deal of solo violin music, much of it for the great virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso<\/em> and the Havanaise<\/em> are popular favourites, the Sonata No. 1 for Violin and piano is a wonderful piece, and the Violin Concerto No. 3 is deservedly a repertoire staple, but Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 other two concertos \u2014 Violin Concerto No. 1 and Violin Concerto No.2 \u2014 are scarcely known or played at all.<\/p>\n

The thirteen-minute long Violin Concerto No. 1, actually the second concerto he composed and a charming piece that ought to be played more often, is barely a concerto at all. The much more substantial Violin Concerto No. 2, with a powerful and complex first movement that includes a technically challenging cadenza and a second movement with prominent harp and wind solos is in Saint-Sa\u00ebns best lyrical vein and, apart from its finale \u2014 a little lightweight in comparison to what has come before \u2014 is in many respects equal in quality to the better-known Violin Concerto No. 3.<\/p>\n

Andrew Wan plays all three concertos on this recording brilliantly, with dazzling technique and voluptuous tone. Saint-Sa\u00ebns had a Mozartean gift for melodies and Wan does justice to every one of them. Nagano and the OSM provide sensitive and committed accompaniments and soloist and conductor demonstrate a special affinity for the ideal ebb and flow of these scores. Principal oboist Theodore Baskin must be singled out for the beauty of his sound and the subtlety of his phrasing in the slow movements of both the second and third concertos. Only in the Third Concerto did I sometimes feel that the performance became a little too careful when it should have been pressing forward.<\/p>\n

These performances were recorded live in Montreal\u2019s Maison symphonique. The balance between soloist and orchestra is exemplary and the overall sound quality is outstanding; although the acoustics of the Maison symphonique obviously contributed to this quality, producer Carl Talbot and his team also deserve plenty of credit.<\/p>\n

Saint-Sa\u00ebns: Complete Violin Concertos with Andrew Wan, Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal & Kent Nagano is available at iTunes<\/a> and Amazon.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

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This is a terrific recording and deserves attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,77,5739,51,52],"tags":[2272,11901],"yst_prominent_words":[11782,11013,7261,7901,10617,11892,11242,7682,11900,10582,10411,11896,11895,11891,11897,11893,7249,7251,11894,11016],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/71dHE-1LmwL._SL1400_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cxj","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48196,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48193\/revisions\/48196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48193"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}