MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 [1880] [28:53]
La Muse et le Poète, Op. 132 [1910] [16:36]
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 [1872] [30:13]
Renaud Capuçon (violin); Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Lionel Bringuier
rec. Salle Pleyel and Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, no date supplied
WARNER ERATO 9341342 [65:48]

Violinist Renaud Capuçon and his cellist brother Gautier are joined here for an all Saint-Saëns programme by the young French conductor Lionel Bringuier and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. They are all evidently fine musicians and cannot be faulted in matters of taste and technique. 

Many collectors will already own the two concertos here but are less likely to know the rarely heard piece which lends its title to this disc, the ‘Duet for Violin, Cello and Orchestra’, La Muse et le Poète. Saint-Saënscomposed it while in Egypt. It is a sweetly plaintive, gently Romantic and sometimes even rhapsodic but not especially memorable work. At first, the two solo instruments call to and answer each other in figures built around falling fifths and octaves. They are accompanied by strumming harps and pizzicato strings. The violin seems to be coaxing the cello into more elaborate excursions upwards and perhaps as such acts as the Muse to the cello’s Poet. There follows an impassioned middle section for the cello before first the violin, then the cello, ponder reflectively until the music works itself up into an energetic finale.
 
The Violin Concerto, Saint-Saëns’ third, opens with an arresting, sweeping theme which is generously shaped by brother Renaud. The Andante sings and the faintly conventional but, as ever with Saint-Saëns, well-crafted finale is taut and elegant. The main ideas in the Cello Concerto are once more derived from exploiting the interval of a fifth, first fast, then reflective. Gautier Capuçon’s warm tone and his deft, delicate bowing make the most of the old-fashioned minuet in the slow movement. Then he broadens and intensifies his manner to encompass the demands of the big, bold finale.
 
My comparison for the two concertos was with the Sony compilation recording featuring soloists Yo-Yo Ma and Cho-Liang Lin (SMK 66935). I found them both to be more febrile and individualistic than their Capuçon counterparts. The Capuçons who are typically Gallic in their refinement and are served by better, more modern digital sound.
 
This is a fine disc neatly combining a rarity with first class performances of two deservedly acclaimed concertos.
 
Ralph Moore

Previous review: Michael Cookson (October 2013 Recording of the Month)