Casadesus

COMPOSERS: Casadesus
LABELS: Chandos
ALBUM TITLE: Casadesus
WORKS: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 5; Symphony No. 7
PERFORMER: Natasha Jouhl

Alexandra Gibson

Mark Wilde

Michael Druiett

Gateshead Children's Choir

Northern Sinfonia

Howard Shelly
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 10263

Robert Casadesus is rightly



remembered as a great pianist, preeminent



in Ravel and Mozart, yet his



copious output of original works is



hardly known. This recording of three



of his seven symphonies may redress



the balance a little, though it cannot



be said that it reveals a major master.



Casadesus was not given to pastiche



(unlike his uncle Henri, who fathered



viola concertos on Handel and CPE



Bach), but his works determinedly



evoke an ultra-civilised classicism,



and Symphony No. 5 ‘sur le nom de



Haydn’, in homage to that master, is



inevitably reminiscent of Prokofiev’s



Classical Symphony. Overall the



impression is of attractive, expertly



crafted but lightweight scores, perhaps



written with no greater ambition than



to entertain.



The First Symphony of 1934-5



has echoes of Ibert, Koechlin,



Milhaud and especially Ravel in the



beautifully poised slow movement.



Symphony No. 7 (Isra‘l), Casadesus’s



last work, dedicated to the memory of



George Szell and partly inspired by



the Six-Day War, employs wordless



voices almost throughout: the first



movement is undoubtedly dramatic



but the general effect is more like a



film score than a symphonic



dialectic. Indeed the same comment



could apply to everything here: not



to decry film music, simply to note



that Casadesus generally seems



concerned with immediate pictorial



effect and atmosphere.



That said, one can hardly imagine



these amiable works better presented



than here with, in Howard Shelley,



one distinguished pianist most



sympathetically directing the



compositions of another, in



performances marked by warm,



affectionate playing and very good



sound. Calum MacDonald