Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5, pieces for solo piano

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.