Saint-Saens: Symphony no 3, Carnival; Poulenc / Pretre, Durufle, Ciccolini (2001)

I wish I didn't fall quite so easily for almost anything Poulenc ever wrote, especially if it happens to be on the romantic side, for I can't be detached enough to know if I haven't lost all critical sense. I don't think I've ever heard the suite from Les animaux modèles before but there I go, falling in love again, as the song has it. Not that Poulenc didn't take the scenario of the ballet seriously; yet it was in a very typical way, for even when Death arrives on the scene, it is in the likeness of a beautiful woman who is masked, not a skeleton playing his fiddle.

But no need to go into the story of the ballet, for it's all there on the sleeve—and anyway, this is only a suite of six pieces.

There is a most beautifully calm opening (an early summer morning in the country). "The Lion in love", a splendidly passionate piece of typical Poulenc, which Prêtre plays equally excitingly. (The reason a lion gets into a ballet that starts in a French farmyard is that the whole thing is based on six of La Fontaine's fables—which also accounts for the fact that the next, very brilliant, piece is called "The middle-aged man and his two mistresses", very brilliantly played, too.) "Death and the Woodcutter", to which I've referred, is said by the writer of the sleevenote to be the climax of the score, an adagio. As a ballet, this may be the climax, as seen on the stage; but the gramophone listener will enjoy it for the charming waltz tune it mostly is. (Tres lent merely refers to the introductory bars.) "The two cockerels", clever as it is, is less attractive though it makes Saint-Saens's poultry seem an all too obvious joke. Then the peasants return from the fields for their midday meal (little knowing what has gone on while they've been away!) and there is the most coolly ravishing music for this quiet ending, something only the French could write; owing a good deal to Ravel ("Le jardin feerique"), no doubt, but none the less extremely moving.

I have spent too much space on this one part of the record but the rest is better known. The Saint-Saëns gets a brilliant performance, with a first-class piano duo in Aldo Ciccolini and Alexis Weissenberg. Their ensemble is perfect, except in that piece that is so boring if the ensemble is perfect—"Pianists"—where they play just badly enough together to be funny, without overdoing it. The solo double-bass is excellent and Prêtre persuades the 'cellist to play his famous solo, not slowly and super-romantic, but grazioso, as marked—a most welcome change. – Gramophone [7/1967, reviewing Carnival of the Animals and Les animaux modèles]




Tracklisting:

01. SAINT-SAENS – Symphony No.3 in C Minor – Organ – Adagio - Allegro Moderator – Op. 78 /10:24/
02. 2. Poco adagio /10:01/
03. 3. Allegro moderator /7:41/
04. 4. Maestoso - Allegro /9:03/
05. SAINT-SAENS – Carnival of the Animals – Introduction and Royal March of the Lion – Op. 0 /2:13/
06. 2. Hens and Cocks - Wild Asses /1:22/
07. 3. Tortoises - The Elephant - Kangaroos /4:13/
08. 4. Aquarium /1:52/
09. 5. Characters with Long Ears - cuckoo in the Depths of the Wood /2:41/
10. 6. Aviary /1:13/
11. 7. Pianist - Fossils /2:33/
12. 8. Swan /2:39/
13. 9. Finale /2:03/
14. POULENC – Model Animals – Early Morning – Op. 0 /3:59/
15. 2. Lion in Love /1:42/
16. 3. Middle-Aged Man and His Two Mistresses /2:01/
17. 4. Death and the Woodcutter /6:03/
18. 5. Two Cockerels /3:41/
19. 6. Midday Meal /3:48/



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