Camille Saint-Saëns was only fifteen years old when he composed his first symphony in 1850, which is known as his Symphony No. 0 — his official Symphony No. 1 would not arrive for another three years.

This live recording of a concert given in Tokyo in November 2024 kicks off with a spikily rhythmic account of Suite No. 1 from Roussel’s ballet Bacchus et Ariane. Conductor Kazuki Yamada achieves a punchy sound with finely detailed string and woodwind playing alongside impactful outbursts of percussion.

Nelson Goerner has always dreamed of recording these two masterpieces of the concerto repertoire. With Kazuki Yamada, he has found the ideal partner to approach Ravel’s two piano concertos with the sensitivity and poetry for which he is universally renowned.

‘It will be a strange score: people will either not like it at all, or will like it enormously’, prophesied Camille Saint-Saëns a few days before the premiere of Déjanire. The opera, first performed in Monte Carlo on 14 March 1911, is based on incidental music written in 1898 for the Béziers Arena. Fascinated by the subject, the composer soon wanted to give it a second, more ambitious life. He therefore conceived a mythological epic that inspired ‘powerfully evocative music’, according to Gabriel Fauré, who was struck by the impact of the choral writing.

Vibrant, striking colors, sensuous harmonies and coruscating wit abound in this irresistible collection played by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the baton of the young rising star Kazuki Yamada. Hailed by Gramophone magazine as a "gifted, budding maestro" with "interpretative nous, strength of personality and scrupulous attention to detail", this is Yamada's four outing for Pentatone following his three critically acclaimed releases of dance music.

The Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its Artistic and Music Director Kazuki Yamada, interprets the now ‘traditional’ recorded pairing of two sumptuous, escapist French song cycles: Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Ravel’s Shéhérazade.

The monumental and colourful sounds of the organ and symphony orchestra blend together perfectly on this splendid recording of Camille Saint-Saëns' “Organ” Symphony, Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani and the Toccata from Charles-Marie Widor's Organ Symphony Number 5. The Geneva Victoria Hall organ is played by Christopher Jacobson, he works with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and conductor Kazuki Yamada. This new Pentatone release takes yet another step closer to audiophile nirvana, providing a natural concert-hall perspective that balances clarity and atmosphere while capturing the full power of organ and orchestra with stunning, floor-rumbling power.