Is your 1st tier only for the absolute greats like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert?
Let me first say that Klassik is glad that the ranking of composers no longer seems to be a thing at the Wigwam! The Wigwam must have been going through some troubled times five years ago.
Let me then add that Klassik can already hear
@Le Baron pounding his fist on the table when he sees that Schubert was put in a list of greats. xD Of course, Klassik does not disagree with Le Baron in that regard.
Anyway, on to Saint-Saëns. Klassik notices that there is a strong focus on orchestral music in this thread, but Saint-Saëns wrote some good, IMO, chamber music as well. Saint-Saëns wrote some interesting sonatas for woodwind instruments which are worth checking out (maybe I'll post about those at some point), but I'm going to focus this post on his piano trios. Oh dear, I hear
@Le Baron pounding the desk again.
Anyway, I think the two piano trios, which were written quite a number of years apart from one another, might be Saint-Saëns' finest works. They're accessible, dramatic, move along with nice rhythm, and they don't linger on too long like a lot of other Romantic works.
I'm sure there are some excellent performances of the Saint-Saëns piano trios, but Klassik recommends the Trio Wanderer CD from Harmonia Mundi France. Trio Wanderer did a magnificent job, IMO, with the Felix Mendelssohn piano trios with their ability to play at a fast tempo which seems to fit Mendelssohn's music without the sense that they were missing any of the music. They did a great job with the Saint-Saëns piano trios as well. The pianist in particular put on an outstanding show, but everyone performed well and the sound quality is good as well. Harmonia Mundi France re-released the disc in 2012 or 2013 and did so at a bargain price ($7.99 in the US at most stores). That's what I own and it's a great buy at that price. Interestingly, like some other Harmonia Mundi France CDs from that bargain series, the CD has a black data side kind of like a PlayStation 1 game CD. Some older CD players may not like that, but it seems to read without problem on newer CD players.
Anyway, if $7.99 is too much, the entire album is available to listen on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mX6KGiLkL3ITbPbTncqalKdRxMjr2HdO8