Saint-saens: Complete Symphonies - Olivier Latry

Camille Saint-Saëns, famous for his humorous "Carnival of the Animals," also created touchingly serious works with his symphonies. On the 100th anniversary of his death, the Orchestre National de France under Cristian Macelaru honors the French composer with a complete recording of his five symphonies. For Cristian Macelaru, chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the album is also his debut as music director of the Orchestre National de France. In addition to the warm string sound and the richness of color in the winds, he particularly appreciates the French suppleness full of flexibility and elegance in his new musical partner: "like a dancer who rises into the air with ease and lands quietly back on his feet." The cultivated agility of the orchestra is particularly evident in the melodic variety of the five symphonies. Their genesis spans 35 years of the composer's life: already at the age of fifteen, Mozart wrote the Symphony in A major, which was never published during his lifetime. Two years later, Saint-Saënsʼ official first symphony in E-flat major followed, full of Mendelssohnʼs grace, but already with a harmonic language all its own. Three decades later, the composer considers himself to have reached the height of his abilities with the last symphony: "Here I gave everything I could give. I will never write anything like this work again." In this poignantly profound work, the composer also employs an organ, here played by Olivier Latry.

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