On this release the award-winning Quartetto di Cremona draws on sixteen years of giving concerts and making recordings. Leading Italian pianist Andrea Lucchesini joins the ensemble for the Piano Quintet. These two chamber works of Camille Saint-Saëns represent crucial stages in his oeuvre - the Piano Quintet, a work of early perfection, demonstrates his engagement with German Romanticism while the String Quartet, marks the transition into his late style.