"Saint-Saëns's two best-known works were written in the same year, but while the Organ Symphony cemented his reputation, The Carnival of the Animals was kept as a secret, shared only with friends who he knew wouldn't laugh at him for having indulged in such frivolity. Soloists from Antonio Pappano's Rome orchestra, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia have a high old time with it here, their playing brightly coloured and characterful ... The Organ Symphony is recorded live, with Pappano conducting the full Santa Cecilia orchestra in a performance that maintains its momentum and punch through to a decidedly epic-sounding conclusion"

"There is undeniable fun in hearing conductor Antonio Pappano and piano superstar Martha Argerich take on the "Pianists" section, which depicts a pair of amateurs, and Pappano is a more than solid interpreter of the Symphony No. 3, which wears a neoclassic disguise, but has a delicacy and sensuousness in its quieter passages that reveal the composer as closer to Debussy than either one would probably have wanted to admit. The resurgent Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia sounds fabulously delicate in the symphony's quieter passages"

Vurdering: 4/5

"Clou der CD ist nicht die Orgelsinfonie, sondern die Besetzung des etwas angegilbten Karnevals der Tiere: Martha Argerich und Antonio Pappano an zwei Flügeln, umrahmt von einem exzellenten Solistenensemble ... was nicht zuletzt daran liegt, das Antonio Pappano ganz fabelhaft Klavier spielt"

"In the Organ Symphony Pappano brings us a drama in music that undoubtedly compels and raises the hairs at every turn. The only trouble is that it leaves one wondering whether Saint-Saëns really is being ideally served ... Carnival of the Animals ... is pure fun, and even if it is delivered with unusual heat, the high energy and glittering pianism prove irresistible"