Saint-Saëns: Complete Symphonies (2021)

This box set, released in 2021, packages three earlier recordings, released in 2015 and containing the complete symphonies of Camille Saint-Saëns, together with assorted other orchestral works. The commercial success of the box set, on a budget label and by an orchestra of mostly regional repute, shows that demand among listeners for Saint-Saëns music is still outstripping supply. The original releases touched on music that had rarely been recorded, and the set represents the only complete Saint-Saëns cycle available save ... Read More

This box set, released in 2021, packages three earlier recordings, released in 2015 and containing the complete symphonies of Camille Saint-Saëns, together with assorted other orchestral works. The commercial success of the box set, on a budget label and by an orchestra of mostly regional repute, shows that demand among listeners for Saint-Saëns music is still outstripping supply. The original releases touched on music that had rarely been recorded, and the set represents the only complete Saint-Saëns cycle available save for a 1970s traversal by the Orchestre National de l'ORTF, which, despite period analog sound, was reissued in the early 2010s. Except for the Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 ("Organ"), the symphonies are early works, with two of them left unnumbered and generally disclaimed by Saint-Saëns. However, there is plenty of fun here, and veteran conductor Marc Soustrot and the Malmö Symphony catch it nicely. Consider the opening movement of the Symphony in A major, likely composed in... Read Less