Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor – Bruno Philippe, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Christoph Eschenbach (HD 1080p)

Accompanied by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the great conductor Christoph Eschenbach, the award-winning French cellist Bruno Philippe performs Camille Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33. The concert was recorded at Hr Sendesaal, Frankfurt, Germany, on September 17, 2020.

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The first cello concerto has always been one of Saint-Saëns' most popular pieces, Casals choosing it for his London debut in 1905. Tunes abound, but not in any disorderly way: the main themes of the outer movements move upwards, the second themes downwards; if, that is, the opening cello motif can be called a "theme' – the composer's biographer Brian Rees refers to it as "an artefact rather than a melodious outburst". The central minuet is a movement of pure delight and, in those uncertain times, no doubt reassured Parisian audiences that French culture had after all survived, one critic remarking that here the composer was making up for a recent "divergence from classicism". The return of earlier material in the third movement may owe something to Saint-Saëns' study of the cyclic patterns found in Liszt, to whom he remained indebted all his life.

Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33, was informed, certainly, by one friendship and possibly by another. As a student, he had been taught piano accompaniment by Auguste Franchomme, the cellist to whom Chopin had dedicated his cello sonata and who developed a particular light bowing technique usually described as "French". Another possible influence on the work was the death in January 1872 of his beloved great-aunt Charlotte at the age of ninety-one, after which he cancelled all engagements for a month. It is arguable that the tone of the work combines a lightness of touch with deep expressiveness, not least in what one biographer has called the "haunting otherworldliness" of its melodies.

Yet a third factor in the work might well have been the incipient recovery of Paris after the Franco-Prussian war and the Commune. In February 1871 the new Société Nationale de Musique, with Saint-Saëns as one of its founder members, had promoted its first concert under the banner "Ars gallica", and the impetus was thereby given to young French composers to outdo the Germans in every way possible. It was partly pressure from the Société that pushed the staid Concerts du Conservatoire into accepting the premiere of Saint-Saëns' first concerto on 19 January 1873, but more the request from the established cellist Auguste Tolbecque – without which, the conductor kindly informed the composer, the work would not have had a hope.

Source: Roger Nichols (hyperion-records.co.uk)

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

♪ Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33 (1872)

i. Allegro non troppo
ii. Allegretto con moto
iii. Tempo primo

Bruno Philippe, cello

hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach

Hr Sendesaal, Frankfurt, Germany, September 17, 2020

(HD 1080p)

Born in 1993, Bruno Philippe studied the cello at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, in the classes of Raphaël Pidoux and Jérôme Pernoo, and chamber music with Claire Désert. From 2014 to 2018, he studied as a young soloist at the Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson and participated to the masterclasses of David Geringas, Steven Isserliss, Gary Hoffman, Pieter Wispelwey and Clemens Hagen at Salzburg Mozarteum.

In 2018, Bruno Philippe was named "Instrumental Revelation" at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. Previously, he had won the Third Grand Prix and the Prize for Best Recital at the André Navarra International Competition in 2011. In 2014, he won the Nicolas Firmenich Prize at the Verbier Festival and then the Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious ARD International Competition in Munich. He also received Special Prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in June 2015 and the Feuermann Competition in Berlin in November 2014. In 2015, Bruno Philippe was named Classical Revelation of ADAMI and in 2016, he won the Prix pour la Musique de la Fondation Safran for the cello. In 2017 he was a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

Bruno Philippe appears in prestigious venues and festivals in France (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, La Grange au Lac, Festival de Radio France Montpellier-Occitanie etc.) and on the international scene, including the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Teatro Colón in Bogotá and Bavarian Radio in Munich. In the concerto repertory, Bruno Philippe has the opportunity to play with such renowned orchestras as the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, the Dijon-Bourgogne Orchestra under Gabor Takács-Nagy, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Münchener Kammerorchester, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

Among the prestigious soloists with whom he has appeared are Gary Hoffman, Tabea Zimmermann, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, David Kadouch, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Tanguy de Williencourt, Antoine Tamestit, Sarah Nemtanu, Lise Berthaud, Timothy Ridout, Stephen Waarts, Kian Soltani, Christophe Coin, Jérôme Pernoo, Raphaël Pidoux and Emmanuelle Bertrand. In the Baroque repertory, he performs alongside Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre and is a member of the Ensemble Jupiter.

His first CD, devoted to the Brahms sonatas with Tanguy de Williencourt, was released in 2015 on the Evidence Classic label. In 2017 he joined harmonia mundi with a recording of works by Beethoven and Schubert. In 2019, he recorded two albums dedicated to russian music: sonatas by Prokofiev, Myaskovsky and Rachmaninov with the pianists Jérôme Ducros and Tanguy de Williencourt, and Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

Bruno is a Larsen Artist and a Pirastro artist. When it comes to gut, he exclusively plays on Pirastro's Oliv and Passione.

Source: lagence-management.com

More photos


See also

Francis Poulenc: Sonate pour violoncelle et piano – Bruno Philippe, Tanguy de Williencourt (HD 1080p)

Bruno Philippe & Tanguy de Williencourt interpret Ludwig van Beethoven & Franz Schubert (Audio video)

Johannes Brahms & Robert Schumann: Works for cello and piano – Bruno Philippe, Tanguy de Williencourt (Audio video)

Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor – Bruno Philippe, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Stéphane Denève (HD 1080p)

Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 in C major – Bruno Philippe, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Christoph Eschenbach (HD 1080p)

Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor – Nicolas Altstaedt, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Matthias Foremny (HD 1080p)