Music by Cecile Chaminade

Here is music by Cecile Chaminade that is performed rather rarely for some reason:

Chaminade:

Callirhoë – Ballet Symphonique

Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 40

Performed by Victor Sangiorgio (piano), with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Martin Yates conducting.

The year 1888 was a remarkable one for French pianist-composer Cécile Chaminade. Her large-scale “ballet symphonique” Callirhoë was produced at Marseilles on 16 March, and a few weeks later, on 18 April, there followed the “Concertstück for piano and orchestra”, well received in Antwerp and soon across the world.

Here these two compositions make a nice coupling, and Callirhoë is recorded in its complete form for the first time, proving to be a delightful and varied discovery.

Cecile Chaminade is remembered for her many piano miniatures and mélodies, but soloist Victor Sangiorgio’s brilliant performance of the Concertstück for piano and orchestra, in which he effortlessly projects its flamboyant pianism, reminds us of what a romantic and affecting composer Chaminade could be when given an extended musical opportunity.

Here is Cecile Chaminade’s Concertstueck Op. 40:

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