[4/10/2011] Who says a piano concerto has to be all this way or that way? Not Camille Saint-Saëns! (continued)

SO, LET'S HEAR THE LAST TWO MOVEMENTS
OF SAINT-SAËNS' SECOND PIANO CONCERTO

For some listeners it may come as a surprise that Arthur Rubinstein was so totally at ease with music as breezy and charming as this, but in fact it's well-known that a streak of devilish gaiety was part of his personality. He did, after all, spend a lot of time in Paris in his formative years, and the Saint-Saëns Second Concerto was a lifelong favorite of his. I think it's less expected still in the case of Gilels, but then, he was perhaps the least "typable" of the great pianists. The Rachmaninoff Third Concerto included on the Testament CD would seem "native" repertory for him in more than one sense, but the Saint-Saëns?

SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22:
ii. Allegro scherzando
iii. Presto

Emil Gilels, piano; Paris Conservatory Orchestra, André Cluytens, cond. EMI/Testament, recorded March 11, 1954
Arthur Rubinstein, piano; Symphony of the Air, Alfred Wallenstein, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Jan. 14, 1958

You read the recording dates right, by the way. Less than four years separate the two recordings, a period that I think represented the greatest leap in the history of recording technology.

SO WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST MOVEMENT
OF THE SAINT-SAËNS SECOND CONCERTO?

Certainly the composer was capable of writing a concerto opening movement consistent in spirit with the second and third movements we've already heard. Just listen:

i. Andante; Allegro assai

Stephen Hough, piano; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari, Oramo, cond. Hyperion, recorded 2000

The only thing is, this is the first movement of Saint-Saëns' First Piano Concerto (in D, Op. 17). The performance, by the way, is from Stephen Hough and Sakari Oramo's lovely (and beautifully recorded) Hyperion set of the five Saint-Saëns piano concertos (plus some other goodies to fill out the two CDs), from which we're going to be hearing more in a moment. For anyone who by chance hadn't already figured this out, I gave it away with the video clip atop this click-through. Movement "A" isn't from the other concerto on the Gilels CD, the Rachmaninoff Third, it's the first movement of the Saint-Saëns Second Concerto! Meaning that we've already heard the Gilels-Cluytens and Rubinstein-Wallenstein recordings in their entirety, even if broken up and out of order.

MOVEMENTS "A" AND "B" ARE FROM
THE SAME DAMNED CONCERTO???

Let's pretend that this "secret" hadn't been long since blown. I did say that the two concertos on the Gilels CD are about as different as can be -- and the Saint-Saëns Second and Rachmaninoff Third Concertos are, aren't they? I said the same of Movements "A" and "B," and that's true too, isn't it? I never did say, though, that the two movements are from different concertos.

LET'S START OVER WITH THE SAINT-SAËNS
SECOND CONCERTO -- A MOVEMENT AT A TIME

1ST MOVEMENT: Andante sostenuto

Saint-Saëns himself plays the opening of the concerto

The composer arranged enough music beyond the opening piano solo for a 78 side's worth, or rather a 1904 78 side's worth, one of five sides he recorded for G&T in Paris on June 26, 1904.

The name that's usually invoked in connection with this movement, in particular the opening piano solo, is Bach, and I suppose I can hear that. At the very least, it's generally agreed that, especially in contrast with the work's later movements, the first sounds weightily Germanic. But what if Saint-Saëns was less concerned with writing music that sounded "French" or "German" than with writing music that the thought formed a harmonious whole?

Arthur Rubinstein seems to have attempted -- especially in the 1958 recording we've been listening -- to make the three movements sound stylistically more homogeneous, to the extent that I worried about bracketing this performance of the opening movement with the Gilels, who clearly responds to the majestic, sober, even somber quality of the music. For our movement-by-movement journey through the concerto, I've deliberately chosen an all-French performance as well as the Hough-Oramo one, by a British pianist with a fine provincial British orchestra under a Finnish conductor.

Jeanne-Marie Darré, piano; Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Louis de Froment, cond. EMI, recorded April 1955Stephen Hough, piano; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari, Oramo, cond. Hyperion, recorded 2000

2ND MOVEMENT: Allegro scherzando

One tiny point about this enchanting movement: Note the timpani flourish with which the composer sets it in motion. It's so beguiling and sounds so effortlessly natural that it's easy to forget what an uncharacteristic use this is of the timpani.

Jeanne-Marie Darré, piano; Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Louis de Froment, cond. EMI, recorded April 1955Stephen Hough, piano; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari, Oramo, cond. Hyperion, recorded 2000

3RD MOVEMENT: Presto

The performers have a fair amount of discretion here as to how dark a scamper this rousing concluding movement is -- we might say, how much the influence of the first movement is heard on the second.

Jeanne-Marie Darré, piano; Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Louis de Froment, cond. EMI, recorded April 1955
Stephen Hough, piano; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sakari, Oramo, cond. Hyperion, recorded 2000


FINALLY, I THOUGHT WE'D HEAR THE
WHOLE THING PUT BACK TOGETHER

Arthur Rubinstein was less than two weeks away from his 71st birthday when he made the 1958 recording we've heard. I think I actually prefer this remake with Eugene Ormandy, made in the month the pianist turned 82. As for the Ciccolini-Baudo performance, I think it demonstrates neatly, set along side the Darré-de Froment, that it's hard to type a "French" performance of the piece.

SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22

i. Andante sostenuto
ii. Allegro scherzando
iii. Presto

Arthur Rubinstein, piano; Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Jan. 2, 1969
Aldo Ciccolini, piano; Orchestre de Paris, Serge Baudo, cond. EMI, recorded Dec. 22-23, 1970


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