Hyperion to record all five Saint-Saens symphonies with the Utah Symphony

[Ilja]

Let's not forget Kantorow's cycle with the Tapiola Symphony (on Ondine, IIRC). Particularly good in the two early symphonies and Urbs Roma.

[hyperdanny]

I think that Yondani Butt did a very good job with n.2 on ASV, no doubt aided immensely by great playing from the LSO.
Pretre I like very much, quite sophisticatedly French, even if the orchestra was Austrian.
In general I like Soustrot, even if his Third i find uninspired..but his Urbs Roma displaced Kantorow's, which is very good but i don't think did really justice to what is after all a rather large scale piece, using a smallish orchestra.
The Third is one of my "totem" pieces, I buy most of them and them I select them for collecting: lately I got an absolutely first-class one from Pentatone: Kazuki Yamada and the Suisse Romande, with tempi that, for once,  I find perfectly judged.

[hyperdanny]

If you are in the mood for the perverse pleasure of a really crazy Saint-Saens Third try the Swedish Radio Symphony with Svetlanov, none the less.
It is, or was, on youtube, too.
His tempi make a Celibidache look like an impetuous quicksilver, never heard anything like that , even Eschenbach with the Philadelphia Orchestra seems a model of restraint.

[mjmosca]

I really love Svetlanov's recording of the Saint-Saens' Third- massive, slow, but never slack! He was a great conductor and clearly had the Swedish orchestra playing at their peak. It is such a good antidote to the recent trend for too fast and anemic, undersized orchestras. I find that Martinon's superb recordings from 1975 remain the standard for the first four symphonies. Martinon really brings out the magic of the "Urbs Roma" Symphony, better than anyone else- though I definitely enjoy Soustot's recording too. And Martinon's knife edge playing of the Second symphony, another masterpiece, is riveting. [one opinion, of course, but based on 50+ years of listening]. thank you.

[Alan Howe]

Here's Svetlanov in S-S3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiqMjBW-o0

Way over the top...

[mjmosca]

Yes, perhaps "over the top"... but as Mae West famously said: "Too much of a good thing...is wonderful!"

[Alan Howe]

Not in this piece, I fear.

Anyway: S-S 3 isn't unsung, so back to the other symphonies, please...

[mjmosca]

Agree, such a great work. So, has anyone actually heard the first 4 symphonies in this series? The set received a generally negative review in the American Record Guide by the editor, Donald Vroon, but I am really interested in hearing from members here. thank you.

[Alan Howe]

I won't be getting them. Can't see the point. There are perfectly good alternatives available.

[Bruckner1896]

Mjmosca is incorrect:  Donald Vroon gave the first volume of this series, which includes La foi, what I would consider an almost neutral review, which is a rare perspective to encounter, especially from him.  He neither smothered it with accolades, nor dismissed it as irrelevant and inconsequential.
  
On the other hand, Gil French, another editor and reviewer at American Record Guide, reviewed the second release in the series, which includes the Symphony No. 2.  His review is extremely negative, but, having heard all of the concert performances from which most of the recordings in this series were made, and having listened many times to each of the first two releases, I find his comments to be some of the most dispiriting and even vindictive I have ever encountered in a review.  Naturally, as commentators here will understand, almost any release will eventually have a reviewer who finds the release superficial, irrelevant, or worse.  But when a reviewer begins to imply that they know how to conduct and interpret the compositions better than an experienced conductor like Thierry Fischer, whatever his merits or weaknesses, one begins to question the bonafides of a reviewer -- it can all be so arbitrary.

I also find Mr. Howe's latest comment a bit perplexing.  Just how many commercial recordings of the Urbs Roma Symphony have ever been made and commercially released?  I count Martinon, Kantorow, Soustrot, and now Thierry Fischer.  And for La foi I know of just three:  Plasson, Zollman, and Thierry Fischer.  And for the Symphony in A major:  Joeres, Kantorow, Martinon, Soustrot, and Thierry Fischer.   Yes, those others are "perfectly good alternatives," but that is a bit of a bizarre statement about a discography that is comparatively so limited.  Strange times indeed.

[hyperdanny]

it's just that there's so much wonderful reportoire that lies unrecorded or not satisfactorily recorded or underrecorded, and the Saint-Saens symphonies just do not fall in any of these categories.
Without discussing the actual merits of this cycle, I just think it's a perplexing chioce of employment of precious resources by Hyperion, in a time where to be able to record a symphonic cycle is a luxury, especially for an independent label.
I hope they had some financing or co-financing, maybe through some Utah Symphony donor, but all the same....

[Alan Howe]

Yes, those others are "perfectly good alternatives," but that is a bit of a bizarre statement about a discography that is comparatively so limited.

The discography is indeed limited, but there are some very fine recordings available. I have just bought Butt/ASV in Symphony No.2, for example, which is superb - the LSO at their very finest. I repeat: I can't see the point of Fischer, especially when there are so many (more important) symphonies as yet unrecorded, e.g. Grimm, Berger, Moór, Thieriot, Lachner, Rudorff, Abert, Hiller, Reinthaler.....

[TerraEpon]

I have /zero/ insider data here but I have to imagine that presenting something as a complete series helps things sell better. When one of the pieces includes a superhit such as the 3rd here, even more so. On top of this while it was over 20 years ago now, Hyperion DID release a highly acclaimed set of the complete piano concerti. All this combined means that at least financially it probably wasn't a huge gamble. And yeah there may be other recordings, but are there more than two (EMI and BIS) complete ones?

This is all just a guess though.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I think you are right, TerraEpon. Sets sell. And I would be surprised if this set didn't have at least some sponsorship from Utah.