大象传媒

Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the outstanding conductors of the younger generation, leads the period instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in an all-Saint-Sa毛ns programme.

Camille Saint-Sa毛ns's long musical life began in the first half of the 19th century as extraordinary child-prodigy 鈥� he wrote his first composition aged three 鈥� and ended in 1921 as reactionary grand-old-man of French music. He had the distinction being mocked by Berlioz at one end of his career (as a composer who 鈥渒nows everything, but lacks inexperience鈥�) and dismissed by Debussy at the other (as 鈥渢he musician of tradition鈥�).

But the 'French Beethoven' (as Gounod described him) turned out to have staying power. This concert amply demonstrates Saint-Sa毛ns's gift for dazzling orchestral narrative and memorable tunes, opening with the symphonic poem Pha茅ton, with its vivid galloping horses and climactic lightning bolt, and closing with the visceral excitement and grandeur of the 'Organ' Symphony. In between, Steven Isserlis is the soloist in the first Cello Concerto, and in the ever-popular Danse macabre OAE concertmaster Matthew Truscott plays devilish violin to the rattling skeleton bones of the xylophone.

Recorded in January at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and introduced by Martin Handley.

Saint-Sa毛ns: Pha茅ton, op. 39
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 33

8.20 pm
Interval music (from CD)
Rameau: Les Paladins (Suite 鈥� selection)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Gustav Leonhardt (conductor)

8.30 pm
Saint-Sa毛ns: Danse macabre, op. 40*
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 78 ('Organ Symphony')

Steven Isserlis (cello)
*Matthew Truscott (violin)
James McVinnie (organ)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)