ANTON SIMON (1850-1916): Piano Concerto in A Flat, Op. 19, Danse de Bayadère, Op. 34, La revue du nuit, Op. 36, 2 danses de Don Quixote, Plainte élégiaque, Op. 38/2, CÉCILE CHAMINADE (1857-1944): Suite No. 1, Op. 20 (ed. Adolphe Gauwin [1865-1934]).

Description: This French student of Marmontel moved to Moscow in 1871 where he became Anton (instead of Antoine) Yul’yevich Simon and had a career as composer, performer (piano), educator and administrator. The works are conservative, the 1886 concerto rooted ultimately in Schumann with not even a whiff of Tchaikovsky, and the tone poems and the dance pieces (he wrote three ballets and a pantomime too) tastefully colorful. La revue, inspired by a ballad in which dead French troops rise from the grave to be inspected by Napoleon, vividly evokes the ghostly army camp. Chaminade’s 1881 suite has an engaging air of comic opera about it. Victor Sangiorgio (piano), BBC Concert Orchestra; Martin Yates.