CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No.1. Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, James Gaffigan

A love affair with the cello.
‘That’s it done at last, this blasted sonata! Will it please or not? That is the question.’ So wrote Saint-Saëns, not without humour, of his second ‘quadruped’ for cello and piano. He adored the cello, as is shown by much more than the famous Swan. He wrote three sonatas for it, but unfortunately the last two movements of the Third Sonata have been lost and what is left survives only in manuscript. Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel play it here with emotion and total respect. The Concerto also included here is today one of the ‘musts’ of the concertante repertory for cello.