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Navarra suspended playing between the years 1939 and 1945 while the war was on, and had only re-emerged on to the concert stage in 1948. So this marks one of his earliest recordings from that period. It also features the legendary Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservertoire conducted by the equally legendary Andre Cluytens.

I have no idea why this recording wasn't issued commercially, or even issued on CD of late. The sound is a little ancient but the performance is pretty combustible and Navarra, although not the household name his contemporaries were, is nonetheless an incredible performer.

Well . . .as always, you get to hear it here and draw your own conclusions.

(Featuring a Who's Who of French musicians from the 1940s)

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Back to early lp's tonight with a recording issued only in France by Odeon around 1953 of the Saint-Saens Le Carnaval des Animaux led by the legendary French-Roumanian conductor Edouard Lindenberg. This recording also boasted something of a Who's Who of French musicians, household names in Europe since the 1930's, including Andre Navarra, cello, Henri Merckel, violin and Raymond Trouard, Piano.

Carnival Of The Animals is a well known work, initially denounced by its composer Camille Saint-Saens after one performance and withdrawn from public performance (with the exception of the The Swan) until after his death, it's one of those deceptively simple pieces of music that often gets short shrift as something of a "kid's piece of music" and not taken seriously. Which is too bad because sometimes with something even as simple as this the true talent of a gifted composer leaps out effortlessly. The trick with everything is to make it all look simple. Carnival of The Animals sounds simple - and then it gets stuck in your head and stays there.

Happens all the time.