Gramophone Awards
2019
Winner - Concerto

Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2018

Presto Recording of the Week
21st December 2018

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Orchestre National de France, Emmanuel Krivine

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 'Egyptian'
Saint-Saëns: Les Cloches de Las Palmas (No. 4 from Six Études, Op. 111)
Saint-Saëns: Etude en forme de valse (No. 6 from Six Études, Op. 52)
Saint-Saëns: Mazurka for Piano no 3 in B minor, Op. 66
Saint-Saëns: Tierces majeures chromatiques (No. 5 from Six Études, Op. 111)
Saint-Saëns: Allegro appassionato for piano, or piano & orchestra, Op. 70
Saint-Saëns: Etude pour l'independance des doigts (No. 2 from Six Études, Op. 52)
Saint-Saëns: Valse nonchalante, Op. 110

Following his award-winning survey of Ravel’s complete solo piano works, Bertrand Chamayou takes on some of the most brilliant yet fiendishly virtuosic music in the French Romantic repertoire on his new Saint-Saëns album, drawing together the two most famous of the composer-pianist’s five piano concertos – the epic No.2 and the irresistibly exotic No.5 ‘The Egyptian’ – alongside a bouquet of lesser-known solo pieces and études that will delight pianophiles. These include the effervescent yet notoriously difficult Étude en forme de Valse with its breathtaking bravura finale, and the entrancing Les Cloches de Las Palmas inspired by the bells Saint-Saëns heard ringing out in the Canary Islands. ‘I’m always charmed by Saint-Saëns,’ says Chamayou. ‘There’s an attraction to the exotic, the bizarre, sensual fantasy, that’s very curious for a composer that we think of as so academic. And there’s a real sense of voyage in the music of Saint-Saëns that I find fascinating.’ He is joined by the Orchestre National de France and its formidable conductor Emmanuel Krivine for an album that promises fireworks, champagne and just a few puffs of opium.

"In the Second Concerto [Chamayou] is by turns dramatic and captivatingly tender as required, with excellent support from conductor Emmanuel Krivine and the Orchestre National de France, who bring out the Brahmsian qualities of the first movement and a Tchaikovsky-like lightness of touch to the second movement." - James Longstaffe, Presto Classical, 21st December 2018.