Saint-Saëns: Chamber Music Bits 'n Bobs

 

This edition of my Bits 'n Bobs series was originally just going to contain the Septet from Saint-Saëns. In reaction to a recording I recently heard of the composer's Piano Quintet, I thought I would branch out and here the larger items on this Hyperion recording. I suspect the sonatas and miniatures are equally served under the Nash Ensemble, even if I am not covering them here.





Septet in E-flat Major
Piano Quintet in A minor
Piano Quartet in B-flat Major


Camille Saint-Saëns' Septet in E-flat Major is an absolutely adorable piece of chamber music. The Septet is scored for string quartet plus double bass (does this create a string quintet...?), as well as piano and trumpet. Saint-Saëns doesn't make the trumpet a solo instrument, instead it punctuates the music here and there, where the composer sets the brass instrument in its low range for color more than anything else.

With the presence of movement dance titles such as Gavotte and Minuet, this work is a smiling throwback to earlier times. One could probably mention the Septet in the same breath as Saint-Saëns' Suites in D Major and D minor, more works where the composer nods strongly to the past.

The Nash Ensemble is, as ever, judicious and giving in this chamber music. In the Septet, they are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but not at the cost of some mood-making in the third movement Intermède. Nor do the trumpet or piano take over the sound at the cost of the entire ensemble.

It wouldn't be Saint-Saëns if he didn't inject some obligatory polyphony into the conclusion, and there it is in the last quarter of the fourth movement. Yet what a good time this whole work is from beginning to end. If you need a smile, find this Septet!

I kept the Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet separate from the Septet above due to the fact I wasn't planning on covering these others. But, a recent recording on Naxos of these two struck me as subpar, so how could I not try these out.

I am glad I did. Whereas Cristina Ortiz brought a muscular approach to the piano part on Naxos, I got the feeling she was under-rehearsed, the instrument she was playing wasn't in ideal shape either, nor did the Fine Arts Quartet mesh with her well, or vice versa.

The opposite is true here on Hyperion with the Nash Ensemble. Not only can they bring the same sense of drama inherent in the A-minor key of the Piano Quintet, they somehow find magic moments and sweetness too, something completely missing on that Naxos recording. The Nash's ability to pull back is absolutely breathtaking at times, without any loss of texture or impact. The piano is not quite as muscly, finding instead its inspiration in intimate and spiritual moments. The timings might be slower as well, but all to the better for the Nash Ensemble in this case. A special performance!

The Piano Quartet in B-flat Major is a higher-profile chamber work, one where I bandy about the term masterpiece in reference to it. I am not sure the Nash Ensemble displaces my favored Mozart Quartet on MDG, but more importantly, the Nash take a different tack altogether in order to make the Piano Quartet's music equally enjoyable in a completely different manner.

The Nash Ensemble draws the listener in by skating as gently as possible in this music. Such an approach strikes me as intuitively French, avoiding undue bombast in lieu of endless unraveling skeins of charm and grace. Even the Baroque-flavored second movement isn't played to the hilt, instead finding a bit of dynamic reserve for the listener, the third movement relying on little flashes of light and dark.

Boy, am I glad I made the choice to continue on in this Hyperion recording!

Bits 'n Bobs

Septet in E-flat Major, op. 65
  Nash Ensemble
  Hyperion; 2005

Piano Quintet in A minor, op. 14
Piano Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 41
  Nash Ensemble
  Hyperion; 2005

 

Find more Saint-Saëns recordings HERE!