Saint-Saëns: Déjanire

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from Bru Zane:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9607252--saint-saens-dejanire

[Christopher]

Hurray!

[Alan Howe]

I'm listening to CD1 as I type and I confess I'm vaguely disappointed. I had been expecting something along the lines of Samson et Dalila - but no, this is spare, almost severe; quite unlike anything else I've heard by the composer. Of course, this is late Saint-Saëns, having been composed in 1909-10 when he was in his mid-seventies. I suppose it'd be like expecting Verdi's Falstaff to be like Aida.

It's decently sung here - not spectacularly, but more than well enough, given that we just don't have many great voices in the romantic repertoire these days.

Déjanire will probably never catch on, but it may fascinate...

4,000 copies have been produced. Mine is no. 3597 (whatever that means).

[eschiss1]

That's what I'd expect the composer of his two string quartets (both late works) and 2nd violin and cello sonatas (which I enjoy- I definitely prefer the 2nd violin sonata to the first, by a lot- but are somewhat "spare" by comparison) to sound like on the whole?...