Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Dukas

They do things differently in France. A vision of moonbeams, transformed into shimmering poetry? A fairytale told in music so vivid that it went on to inspire Disney’s Fantasia? Or a piano concerto written on a Nile cruise, complete with the sunlight, the bustle and even the croaking frogs that Saint-Saëns experienced on his holiday in Egypt? It’s all here in this feast of musical fantasy à la Francaise, conducted by Alain Altinoglu, one of the brightest (and most inspiring) stars of the current French scene. The superb Polish-born pianist Lucas Krupinski stars in Saint-Saëns’ joyous ‘Egyptian’ Concerto, and Nora Gubisch sings Chausson’s ecstatic Poème: ‘The sea hurls itself into the sun’s great embrace / they kiss on soft sand, where rolling breakers shine…’