Bertrand Chamayou: Piano Music of Saint-Saëns

Following his award-winning survey of Ravel’s complete solo piano works, Bertrand Chamayou takes on some of the most brilliant yet fiendishly virtuosic music in the French Romantic repertoire on his new Saint-Saëns album, drawing together the two most famous of the composer’s five piano concertos – the epic No. 2 and the irresistibly exotic No. 5 “The Egyptian.” Chamayou also presents lesser-known solo pieces and études. “I’m always charmed by Saint-Saëns,” says Chamayou. “There’s an attraction to the exotic, the bizarre, sensual fantasy, that’s very curious for a composer that we think of as so academic. And there’s a real sense of voyage in the music of Saint-Saëns that I find fascinating.”