While these works in itself may not be unsung, this arrangement is. I came to know about this in a newsletter from Simon Callaghan reg. upcoming releases - featuring the duo Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi.
(https://i.ibb.co/QXLzgtn/saintsaens-liszt-chopin.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CQ8GQ4N/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CQ8GQ4N/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp)
Simon Callaghan's schedule highlights a number of interesting items not the least of which is a "mystery" recording for Hyperion around November With the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen / Modestas Pitrenas [presumably for the RPC series] Wonder what this will be.
A casual look over the repertoire of Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi highlights Beethoven Symphony No. 5 arranged for Piano Duo by Xaver Scharwenka [again unsung arrangement of a sung work - Moderators, I hope this is ok]. Surprisingly there's a recording of the Symphony by Tessa Uys & Ben Shoeman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeehIRugS78 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeehIRugS78)
Friends here can say how this fares with the existing transcriptions.
I assume the Amazon listing is messed up and the tracks are in the proper order...
Also quite disappointing for that being Volume 3 of the Saint-Saens series when there's still some stuff missing that he actually wrote....
Downloadable tracks at Amazon seem suddenly to have appeared there in the wrong order. Very annoying!
I'd noticed that about another recording but had thought it unique to that recording. I hope they fix the problem before my next mp3-recording purchase there (which -may- be next month)...
Again, I too am somewhat puzzled but the fact that these two works are arrangements and there is much original 2 piano works by Saint-Saens that haven't been recorded. However, if it is as good as the earlier volumes in the series, it will be well worth a listen. Amazon seem to have got themselves in a muddle, hope they sort it out soon.
I'm not sure that's true; how many original, non-transcription-of-his-or-someone-else's works by Saint-Saëns for 2 pianos / piano four-hands actually -are- there, though,??? Possibly not all that many. Only 10 have been uploaded to IMSLP so far, and of those that haven't-well, anyone have a copy of Teller-Ratner to check?...
(Edit: if you add arrangements by the composer -and others- (Benfeld, especially) of his own works- then you have more on the order of 50+. But original piano duo/2-piano works, maybe not so many I -think...-)
(The first disk has - hrm- 3 arrangements (Rouet, Tarentelle and Septet arrangements) and 7 original works. (IMSLP doesn't have König etc Op.59 but it is listed in the 1908 Durand catalog as an original piano duet after a ballad of Heinrich Heine. In 9/8 time signature.) A 2nd CD of original music could contain Marche op.163, the caprices opp. 96 and 106, and the variations op.35, -maybe- Op.8bis (1898 2-piano arrangement of some of the 1858 Op.8 harmonium and piano duets) but otherwise I gather (unless I'm missing something... checking...) would have to continue with arrangements.)
Ah. Never mind, you said this is volume 3, and I notice from NML that caprice arabe is -on- volume 2, as is Op.106, Op.7, and Op.35. I'm now more dubious that there are original 2-piano/piano-duet works left unless they spread the original works and arrangements very carefully... hrm, I don't see Op.163 or Op.8bis in the listing of volume 2, but that's not very well much for a volume 4; expect lots more arrangements.
It is rather confusing with Saint-saens - my original source for my list of his works included 2 piano arrangments of all the piano concertos, the symphonies and all of the symphonic poems although how many of these were actually by the composer wasn't specified! My source was a very old edition of Grove and there are much more up to date books available now. :)
Have you looked at the Catalogue thématique (http://www.archive.org/stream/cataloguegnr00sain#page/n5) published by Durand in 1908? It specifies a fair amount of useful information on each work and its publications, with incipits.
From my list, compiled from a few sources including the Ratner thematic catalog, there's plenty of SS's own music that aren't on the two CDs....most are transcriptions but not all:
Piano Duet:
-Symphony No. 1
-March du Couronnement
-Orient et Occident
-Sur Les Bords du Nil
-Vers la Victoire
-Marche Dediee aux Etudiants d'Alger (has optional chorus, however)
-Variations on a Theme of Beethoven (2 piano version is there, of course)
-Benediction Nuptiale
Two Pianos:
-Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
-Marche Heroique (also two pianos, eight hands)
-Phaeton
-La Jeunesse d'Hercule
-Suite Algerienne
-Jota Aragonese
-Overture de Fete
-Piano Concerto No. 1
-Piano Concerto No. 3
-Allegro Appassionato in c#
-Rhapsodie d'Auvergne
-Africa
-Cypres et Lauriers
-Four Duos (from Six Duos, Op. 8 )
-Hail California (might be a vocal score)
Now granted some of this may be wrong and not Saint-Saens's own transcriptions, but many of them for sure are correct -- a number of them DO have other recordings (including on this weird disc played on a 'Double Piano' which like a singular instrument with a keyboard on both ends) but a lot of them I've never been able to source.
I know how this sounds, but if I can help with that, allow me to try? (In passing, an increasing number of Saint-Saëns manuscripts as well as published scores have been, unsurprisingly, digitized by the French National Library.)