Cristian Macelaru – Saint-Saens: Complete Symphonies (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

In a release that marks the centenary of Camille Saint-Saëns’ death in December 1921, the Orchestre National de France, conducted by its music director Cristian Măcelaru, performs the composer’s five symphonies: Nos 1, 2 and 3 and two unnumbered works, the early Symphony in A major and the Symphony in F major, ‘Urbs Roma’. The works span some 35 years of the composer’s dazzling career – from around 1850, when he was 15, to 1886, the year that the Symphony No 3 was premiered. By far the best known of the five, No 3 famously complements the orchestra with an organ, played on this new recording by Olivier Latry.

It is about time that a Parisian orchestra finally turned its attention to recording something other than Debussy and Ravel in the French repertoire that it should be championing as a priority. While we await the symphonies of Magnard, Ropartz or Honegger, here are all those of Camille Saint-Saëns, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, at the head of the Orchestre National de France, a post which he has held since the 1st of September 2020.

Before even talking about the works, let us underline the extraordinary subtlety of Măcelaru’s conducting, his sense of nuance, the suppleness of the expressions, the accuracy of the tempos. Under his vibrant baton, the National seems to have found a new lease of life and a new precision. As for Saint-Saëns’ five symphonies, they are, except for the famous “Symphonie avec orgue” (1886), all early works… and one could not blame the young composer for shamelessly plagiarising his elders! He was fifteen when he composed his Symphony in A major (unnumbered), which owes everything to Haydn’s “London” Symphonies and Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, just as the young Schubert had done before him.

Three years later, he composed his Symphony No. 1 strongly influenced by Beethoven’s Eroica, (which is also in the key of E flat major) against which, infringing on a Beethoven symphony would have been entitled to protest. At the age of nineteen, the spirited young man wrote the “Urbs Roma” Symphony (unnumbered), an epic-like homage to ancient Rome with all the panache one can command at that age.

The Second Symphony, which followed five years later, is less passionate, more sober and much more personal. As for the famous Symphony No. 3 in C minor, it enshrines a composer who has reached the peak of his talent. So let us salute the beautiful rendering given here by Olivier Latry on the Nouvel Auditorium de Radio France organ, the Orchestre National and Cristian Măcelaru, whose nervous and sharp conducting carries us away with him. – François Hudry

Tracklist:
1. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in A Major: I. Poco adagio. Allegro vivace
2. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in A Major: II. Larghetto
3. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in A Major: III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
4. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in A Major: IV. Finale. Allegro molto. Presto
5. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 2: I. Adagio. Allegro
6. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 2: II. Marche. Scherzo
7. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 2: III. Adagio
8. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 2: IV. Finale. Allegro maestoso
9. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in F Major “Urbs Roma”: I. Largo – Allegro
10. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in F Major “Urbs Roma”: II. Molto vivace
11. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in F Major “Urbs Roma”: III. Moderato assai serioso
12. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony in F Major “Urbs Roma”: IV. Poco Allegretto. Andante con moto
13. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 55: I. Allegro marcato. Allegro appassionato
14. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 55: II. Adagio
15. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 55: III. Scherzo. Presto
16. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 55: IV. Prestissimo
17. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 “Organ Symphony”: I. (a) Adagio – Allegro moderato
18. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 “Organ Symphony”: I. (b) Poco adagio
19. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 “Organ Symphony”: II. (a) Allegro moderato – Presto
20. Cristian Măcelaru – Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 “Organ Symphony”: II. (b) Maestoso. Allegro