New Arrivals/Restock

Title: Saint-Saens: Complete Sonatas
Artist: Mauro Tortorelli
Label: Brilliant Classics
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 5028421976259
Genre: Classical Artists
Release Date: 2025-05-02
Number of Discs: 3

A unique collection of the instrumental sonatas by Saint-Saens, in recent and critically praised Italian recordings. The perfection of Saint-Saens's craftsmanship and the Gallic grace of his seemingly inexhaustible melodic muse were evident from early on in his career, composing as he did in childhood. No less evident was his faith in traditional forms such as the sonata. The works compiled here were composed over the course of half a century, during which time the world and musical culture evolved radically. Saint-Saens evolved too, but only according to the principles to which he held faith - in tonality, in melodic elegance - throughout his long life and career. In fact the composer was already 37 when he wrote the earliest piece here, the First Cello Sonata, in 1872. It does not seek to emulate the crowd-pleasing brilliance or wit of many of his best-known works but instead plots a dark, dramatic and often Beethovenian course through the conventional three-movement span. Compiling these sonatas in this way helps us to appreciate how, by the time we reach the First Violin Sonata of 1885, Saint-Saens had begun to integrate competing imperatives of intensity and elegance. It is curious that the composer's later violin and cello sonatas have never achieved the popularity of his initial essays. Indeed, these Brilliant Classics recordings almost have the field to themselves in the catalogue. Yet they are surely underestimated, because Saint-Saens had an almost endless capacity for reinvention - as he conclusively demonstrated late in life with three-fifths of a planned project to write five sonatas, all for instruments of the woodwind family. The instruments in these three works are scored for by the deft hand of a composer with a lifetime of experience writing for them in orchestral and chamber music settings.

Tracks:
1.1 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 75~Allegro agitato
1.2 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 75~Adagio
1.3 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 75~Allegretto moderato
1.4 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 75~Allegro molto
1.5 Berceuse in B flat Op. 38
1.6 Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat Op. 102~Poco allegro più tosto moderato
1.7 Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat Op. 102~Scherzo: Vivace
1.8 Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat Op. 102~Andante
1.9 Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat Op. 102~Allegro grazioso, non presto
1.10 Triptyque Op. 136~Prémice
1.11 Triptyque Op. 136~Vision congolaise
1.12 Triptyque Op. 136~Joyeuseté
2.1 Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 32~Allegro
2.2 Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 32~Andante tranquillo sostenuto
2.3 Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 32~Allegro moderato
2.4 Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 123~Maestosto, largamente
2.5 Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 123~Scherzo con Variazioni: Allegro animato
2.6 Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 123~Romanza: Poco adagio
2.7 Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 123~Allegro non troppo, grazioso
3.1 Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Op. 168~Allegretto moderato
3.2 Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Op. 168~Allegro scherzando
3.3 Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Op. 168~Molto adagio - Allegro moderato
3.4 Romance for Horn and Piano Op. 67
3.5 Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 166~Andantino
3.6 Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 166~Allegretto
3.7 Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 166~Molto allegro
3.8 Romance for Flute and Piano Op. 37
3.9 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op. 167~Allegretto
3.10 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op. 167~Allegro animato
3.11 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op. 167~Lento
3.12 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op. 167~Molto allegro - Allegretto
3.13 Caprice sur Des Airs Danois et Russes Op. 79 for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Piano