Saint-Saens: Le Carnaval des Animaux, Septuor-Fantaisie
This is a delightful record. It brings together some of Europe's best musicians for a program of primarily unfamiliar works by Saint-Saëns which show him from his most playful, humorous side, and they clearly have a grand time. The only well-known work on the program, "The Carnival of the Animals," is a portrait gallery juxtaposing the familiar with the exotic, and succeeds, by purely musical means, in evoking the salient characteristics of each creature with keen observation, psychological acumen, and benevolent wit. The Lion struts in a regal march, the Asses bray, the Birds twitter; the flute gives the Cuckoo's drooping thirds great variety of expression, the Aquarium shimmers etherially. Saint-Saëns, a brilliant pianist, even pokes fun at himself in a parody of two pianists practicing exercises in unison or contrary motion, but always slightly out of sync. He also did not scruple to borrow from his contemporaries for utmost effect: Tortoises shuffle to an Offenbach can-can, the Elephant dances to Berlioz's Valse de Sylphs, the Finale, borrowing from Rossini'sBarber of Seville, is grandly operatic. "The Swan," the work's most familiar and only serious movement, is performed beautifully, with a touching, unsentimental simplicity. The "Fantasy for Violin and Harp," a bravura piece for both instruments, alternates brilliant passages with dreamy, nostalgic lyricism. Three cello pieces are slow, songful, and passionate; the last is a very successful transcription of the famous aria from "Samson and Delilah." All these works are played to the hilt for virtuosity, color, atmosphere, and expression. The Septet is another fun piece--whimsical, mischievous, comic. Everybody has lots of solos, especially the trumpet, whose virtuoso part mixes mock heroism with baroque flourishes. The Menuet is a courtly dance, the Trio a delicate love song; the slow movement is somber, the Finale a carefree romp.--Edith Eisler