Saint-Saens wrote his unique G minor concerto in 17 days for a performance with Anton Rubinstein as the conductor. But because Saint-Saens had only allowed himself four days to practice his piece, the resulting performance was a complete failure for both the composer and the audience. Fortunately, Liszt also attended the event and – as literally always – recognized the musical worth of this concerto, leading him to encourage Saint-Saens to keep performing it. Eventually, the concerto became an audience-favourite until its decline in the 20th century.
Saint-Saens starts his concerto with a slow movement marked “Andante sostenuto”. The solemn movement begins with an opening akin to a Bach Fantasia. After transitioning over a passage prescient of Rachmaninov (00:47), the movement proper begins with a tragic fanfare (01:26), which will also be closing the Andante at the end. We then hear a lamenting theme reminiscent of Chopin (02:04) in G minor, a transition, and then a beautiful, lighter theme in its relative, B major (03:45). While Saint-Saens’ harmonic, rhythmic, or melodic language isn’t particularly original in this piece, the unusual but meticulous structure and coherent way in which he manages to bring these different elements together in this movement (and the whole concerto) make this a fascinating piece. Just listen to the way he seamlessly and logically transports the Bach-like opening into the romantic epoche near the end (09:40). Furthermore, while the sparse orchestration in the first movement has been criticized, I think it is purposefully so in order to evoke an intimate character (the later movements become considerably more symphonic).

Full concerto playlist:    • Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto 2, Op  2...  

I chose Rafal Blechacz’ live performance because it is probably the closest to Saint-Saens classically inspired ideal: elegant, thoughtful but un-pretentious, and technically brilliant.