Messiaen's lifelong engagement with Christian mysticism, birdsong and awestruck contemplation of the beyond finds its fullest expression in this massive, exultant symphonic cycle.

Don’t be fooled by those well-known portraits of Saint-Saëns the bearded éminence grise—the two symphonies recorded here are the work of the young Camille, spreading his compositional wings and displaying a technical fluency far beyond his teenage years. In between, a certain musical menagerie roars, clucks, brays and squawks for attention.

The prospect of a little-known Saint-Saëns orchestral work might not set the heart racing, but just wait until you hear ‘La foi’. Ample amends for a century’s unaccountable neglect are made with this magnificent new recording—so much more than a prelude to the ‘organ’ symphony.

Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 2 is, by any standards, an outright winner and deserves to be much better known. Here, it’s one of two substantial works flanking a rambunctious account of Danse macabre.

Charles-Marie Widor was born in Lyon to a family of organ builders and consequently became an organist of great skill and an assistant to Camille Saint-Saëns at La Madeleine in Paris at the age of twenty-four.

For this live album, the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales present Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps with Francis Poulenc's Les biches in remarkably vivid performances, under the direction of Thierry Fischer. The most distinctive characteristic of this reading of Le Sacre is the independence of the lines, which are interpreted with a certain individuality that gives the music great flexibility, notably in the woodwinds' contrapuntal passages. Les biches has a bright neo-classical quality that is emphasized by the winds' incisive attacks, brisk tempos overall, and the transparent tone colors of the orchestra.

This CD offers a rare opportunity to hear Igor Stravinsky's opera buffa, 'Mavra.' At only 28 minutes, the opera is short, but interesting. By scoring the orchestra with full winds and just a handful of strings, Stravinsky molded the usually romantic opera genre into his cool, neoclassical form. Both the singing and the playing are highly energetic, and contain a certain wittiness. Conductor Thierry Fischer does something quite amazing: instead of the usual separation between voice and pit orchestra, Fischer puts the orchestra in direct dialogue with the stage action, creating an incredible integration. The 'Octet' and 'Concertino', more standard works, are also well played. Attacks and articulations are so very clean, and it was this cleanliness that attracted Stravinsky to wind instruments in the first place. Unlike other Stravinsky recordings, this one has the vitality and moodiness that make the notes sparkle. One always feels a sense of propulsion. In the 'Concertino', this rhythmic drive is contrasted beautifully with eerie string lines. The 'Octet' manages to achieve a perfect chamber music feel. The ensemble never forces the sound, and the result is an elegant, interesting and contagious performance. The same could be said for the whole album.

Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël is a Christmas number with a difference. His last work and one of his most popular compositions, it was written for the Basle Chamber Choir and Orchestra in 1953. The text of the cantata is derived from liturgical and popular texts— including Psalms and part of the Latin Gloria. A notable feature is the intertwining of traditional carols in French and German: appropriate for multilingual Switzerland and also perhaps symbolizing peace among nations seven years after the conclusion of World War II. Honegger scored the cantata for solo baritone, mixed chorus, children’s choir and an orchestra including organ. The combination of the different texts and forms creates a wonderfully uplifting effect.

This is a collection of absolute gems. The one-movement Concerto by Fauré is the only movement to have survived from an original three-movement violin concerto, and Saint-Saëns’s Morceau de concert was originally intended as the first movement of his third violin concerto. Lalo’s Fantaisie norvégienne, with its utterly gorgeous slow movement, was to become the inspiration behind Bruch’s Scottish Fantaisie, and Guitare is an early encore piece for violin and piano (later orchestrated by Gabriel Pierné) that Lalo (himself a violinist) wrote for his own use.