Search - Camille Saint-Saens, James Loughran, Philharmonia Orchestra of London :: Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4

James Loughran, Philharmonia London, Idil Biret: Saint-Saens

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 06/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos released this disc, but it fits right in with the Idil Biret Archives project now in progress. By the time that huge project is completed, Turkish pianist Idil Biret will have committed quite a bit of great piano music to disc, and more often than not, have done so at a very high level of virtuosity, committed music-making with promise of great staying power.



This disc gives us the second and fourth Saint-Saens piano concertos. The composer wrote five in total. He was a piano virtuoso and organist in his own era, and also noted for considerable erudition in fields outside music, such as geology, lepidoptory, archaeology, botany, writing poetry, and being an active-contributing member of the French Astronomical Society. In all of these areas, the composer was an enthusiast of far more than average intellectual means.



Outside France, the five piano concertos are much less well known. We hear the second more often than the others. One needs a capable pianist, of course; but also a solid conductor and a decent band to really make these concertos sound. Happily, it seems that is just what we get on this disc. Idil Biret is astounding in her reach. She has taken on recording all of the Chopin, than all of the Brahms, and all of the Rachmaninoff piano music - including the concertos for her instrument. She is also doing all of the Beethoven, including those five piano concertos. Then she will relax by branching out into the concertos of Grieg, Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky - and you know, whatever else takes her fancy.



I don't know how much more ambitious such a project could be? Except maybe if Ms. Biret decides to go even further, and give us all the Mozart piano, solo plus concertos? Then how about adding the Bartok, the Prokofiev, two from Ravel, and just keep on going?



The band here is a good sign, too. It is hard to muster better players than the Philharmonia of London. It was founded, back in the day, by impresario and EMI executive Walter Legge. He wanted an excellent orchestra over which he could exert strong artistic and executive control; so that is what he got, right from the start. He then brought over the likes of Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer - and a great host of guest conductors - to fire up his new band.



Our conductor is James Loughran. He's considered one of the leading maestros of his generation. For a while he was music director of the Halle Manchester, then went on to the continent. We haven't had him on recent recordings much, so it is good to hear him doing music again.



Yes, the second concerto catalog offers stiff competition. Artur Rubinstein, Robert Casadesus, Philippe Entremont, Emil Gilels, Aldo Ciccolini, Jeanne-Marie Darre, ... others? ... kept the SS concertos from being completely shoved to the sides of the dominant concert hall playbills. (John Robilette, Cecile Licad, Jean-Philippe Collard, Pascal Roge, Anna Malikova, Jean-Yves Thibaudet - further come to mind on recordings.)



What we get from Biret and friends is a combination of muscular keyboard plus orchestra athletics, more often than not lightened with remarkable polish, flourish, frolic, and fun. It is probably impossible to put the SS concertos over, unless you genuinely enjoy dashing them off with a happy musical smile. Dour these five concertos are not. If performances fall flat, it is often because taking the music lightly can risk not engaging with it at all. Then empty note spinning prevails, and everybody wishes they had stayed home for that one.



Biret and Loughran find just the right fluff and force for these pieces. Those melodies which can sound too pop, too trite? Well they sparkle here. Winking a few hints that maybe even, Darius Milhaud or Francis Poulenc is just right around the corner, musical hi-jinx in waiting.



The chordal, declamatory narrative of the opening fourth concerto is done with a straight face; no playing down or playing around. Then the filigree elaboration of the singing, trilling passages adds touches of intimate mystery to the composer's gathering tale. A subtle melancholy sets in, almost as if the composer were wistfully recalling youth or empire. The second movement rushes in, a combination of mathematically balanced equations being worked out neatly, and frisky runs that dash off lights from chromatic colors while being careful not to actually step in the flower beds on the sides of the well-kempt lawns. (The four movement pattern of the fourth concerto might seem to have taken Brahms mighty second piano concerto as its partial model; but no, not at all seriously.) Attaca, the slow movement winds in, blowing in on chromatic-chilly breezes? Harmonies are turned over, tumbling, and for a bit nothing seems like the music will settle. Yet settle we do, into a foundational key above which the piano and band can spin out a long-breathed melody, almost Bel Canto - except that the tune starts to chromatically meander, too. Is this sideways, chromatic sequence of musical slips, our real main theme? As the keyboard thunders in octaves, seeking a harmony from which to launch its musical message, the brass fanfares herald that now we are going on to the final movement. The main tune has an neatly four-square shape, assertive. Short musical paragraphs, end to end to end. This final movements ends with a lively march forward, interspersed with typical Lisztian scampers, up and down the keyboard.



This disc sounded good enough on headphones, but when I popped it in the home system, it really blossomed out. The integration of orchestra instruments and piano seems just right. Piano tone warmed up even more, just.



To tell the truth, I'm getting a minor case of musical heebie-jeebies when it comes to this artist. Is there any music which Idil Biret cannot master at a high musical level? Or for which she fails to make a vigorous, fair case? Once the entrancing spell of a particular reading on a specific disc fades slowly away, in retrospect I am gripped by a surprise uncanny sense that maybe she is really a super-human woman from another planet - far, far, far, far beyond our galaxy. Imagine how amazing she must have been, graduating at fifteen from the conservatory with three first prizes? One surely winces with the barest touch of fear, acknowledging her nearly preternatural musical gifts across such widely ranging composers?



Biret, Loughran, and the Philharmonia do not render these two SS concertos into anything greater than they are. Once popular during the composer's performing career - like the Mendelssohn? - they have moved to the edges of the going repertoire. Yet one can hardly own more involved, stylish, wide awake readings. You can't go wrong with Ciccolini, Collard, Roge, Malikova - and now we can't go wrong with Idil Biret, either. Five stars."