The French composer never imagined that his bestiary would become one of the most famous works in musical history, a staple repertory piece on a par with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. ‘When human beings keep their distance, animals are happy’, concludes Alex Vizorek, who has rewritten the text of this ‘grand zoological fantasy’. The work’s ‘crazy and poetic drollery’ takes in the ‘Royal March of the Lion’, the ‘Hens and Cocks’, the mysterious ‘Hemiones’, the motley procession of ‘Turtles’, ‘Elephant’ and ‘Kangaroos’, the famous ‘Aquarium’ which gave the Cannes Festival its signature tune, and of course the celebrated ‘Swan’. 

To celebrate the centenary of Saint-Saëns’s death in 1921, Duo Jatekok also presents another of his biggest hits, the Danse macabre, in its version for four hands. Naïri Badal and Adélaïde Panaget, the orchestra and Lucie Leguay bring this colourful parade to a close with Poulenc’s flamboyant Concerto for Two Pianos, premiered at the Tenth Venice Biennale in 1932.