Saint-Saëns wrote five symphonies, of which only the Third, the “organ Symphony”, has remained in regular repertoires. Marking the start of a new complete cycle, this thoughtful disc allows us to assess its predecessors. Saint-Saëns, a teen prodigy, wrote his First Symphony aged 17, though it was not accepted for performance until he passed the manuscript off as a work by an anonymous German composer.If you didn’t know who wrote it, you would probably think it was by Schumann.
The Second, however, dating from 1859, is a taut, lean piece that flies in the face of both the Romantic and symphonic traditions by opening with an astringent fugue, and contains a compact, remarkably beautiful adagio. Phaéton (1873), which depicts the disastrous attempt by Apollo’s son to drive his father’s chariot through the heavens, is among the most original and striking of Saint-Saëns’s symphonic poems.
The performances from Marc Soustrot and the Malmö Symphony are strong and carefully considered, which admirably suits the symphonies, though Phaéton could do with more energy and bite.
