Symphonies no. 3 'Organ' & 'Urbs Roma'

"Empfehlungen der Redaktion: Jean-Jacques Kantorow strukturiert das Werk in großer architektonischer Klarheit ... Der Streicherklang ist warm und gut ausgewogen, die Bläser sind von grosser Exaktheit und offenkundiger großer Spielroutine - eine echte Ensembleleistung unter einem inspirierenden Dirigenten. Auch der Organist Thierry Escaich versteht sich auch als Teil eines grösseren Ganzen, so dass alle Facetten der Komposition in dieser vorbildlichen Interpretation ganz natürlich und organisch ineinandergreifen".

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"I am happy to report that the team finally rises to its potential in this enterprising disc of Saint-Saëns' music for organ and orchestra ... Organist Vincent Warnier ... is remarkably convincing, and an excellent example of how a symphonic organ can be used to play highly entertaining transcriptions of basic repertoire ... Slatkin has finally whipped the orchestra into shape and they deliver a very enjoyable performance ... Altogether this is a very pleasing and worthwhile release".

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"[Cyprès et Lauriers] is formidably played here by Vincent Warnier, with the ONL on fine form for Leonard Slatkin ... Danse Macabre comes in an organ transcription by Edwin Lemare that nicely displays Warnier's virtuosity".

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"So this is a mixed bag. Like most documents of "occasions", you have to take the good with the bad. I need to stress that as usual the orchestra plays fabulously, and both the Barber and Poulenc are pretty terrific. But by the same token the main item is the symphony, and Eschenbach is simply out of his element here ... This program promises much but only partially delivers, and the fault lies squarely with the guy on the podium".

"Saint-Saëns's two best-known works were written in the same year, but while the Organ Symphony cemented his reputation, The Carnival of the Animals was kept as a secret, shared only with friends who he knew wouldn't laugh at him for having indulged in such frivolity. Soloists from Antonio Pappano's Rome orchestra, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia have a high old time with it here, their playing brightly coloured and characterful ... The Organ Symphony is recorded live, with Pappano conducting the full Santa Cecilia orchestra in a performance that maintains its momentum and punch through to a decidedly epic-sounding conclusion".

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"There is undeniable fun in hearing conductor Antonio Pappano and piano superstar Martha Argerich take on the "Pianists" section, which depicts a pair of amateurs, and Pappano is a more than solid interpreter of the Symphony No. 3, which wears a neoclassic disguise, but has a delicacy and sensuousness in its quieter passages that reveal the composer as closer to Debussy than either one would probably have wanted to admit. The resurgent Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia sounds fabulously delicate in the symphony's quieter passages".

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"[In Urbs Roma] Kantorow elicits vigorous playing, with sharp contrasts, and manages the imaginative die-away ending with sensitivity ... This performance [of the Organ Symphony] is almost entirely excellent".

"This intelligently planned, well played and excellently recorded programme presents three major factes of the composer's career: the child prodigy, the master orchestrator, and the pillar of the Establishment ... The only new things in Marc Soustrout's reading are to do with tempo and, in my view, are not to the work's benefit".

"Marc Soustrots och Malmösymfonikernas lovvärda Saint-Saëns-cykel går vidare ... Den nya inspelningen är absolut intressant, fräsch och uppfriskande rakt igenom ... Klar hörvärt, även om alternativ som Barenboim och Levine (båda DG) eller Münch (RCA) knappast görs överflödiga".

"[In the Organ Symphony] Pappano brings us a drama in music that undoubtedly compels and raises the hairs at every turn. The only trouble is that it leaves one wondering whether Saint-Saëns really is being ideally served ... Carnival of the Animals ... is pure fun, and even if it is delivered with unusual heat, the high energy and glittering pianism prove irresistible".

"Clou der CD ist nicht die Orgelsinfonie, sondern die Besetzung des etwas angegilbten Karnevals der Tiere: Martha Argerich und Antonio Pappano an zwei Flügeln, umrahmt von einem exzellenten Solistenensemble ... was nicht zuletzt daran liegt, das Antonio Pappano ganz fabelhaft Klavier spielt".