Chabrier reviews
Escales
Sinfonia of London/John Wilson (Chandos)
Hampson performs French recital
Thomas Hampson, Maciej Pikulski (Pentatone)
Oh, Boy! Arias by Gluck-Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Offenbach, Thomas, Hahn, Gounod, Massenet & Chabrier sung by Marianne Crebassa
In little more than a decade Marianne Crebassa has established herself in the first rank of a new generation of mezzo-sopranos. A former Paris Opera young artist, she sings at Salzburg and Berlin as well as in Paris, and has already made her American debut in Chicago.
Rhapsodies by Gershwin, Enescu, Ravel, Liszt and Chabrier
The Bavarian Radio Symphony has maintained its distinctive sound over many years: texturally transparent yet alluring, with lithe, sparkling violins, a bass end of unusual depth and clarity, agile, fine-tuned brass and mellifluous woodwind. Those qualities are to the fore in a programme of popular classics recorded live in October 2015.
Dessay, Naouri, Cassard and Quatuor Ebène sing Chabrier, Chausson, Duparc, Fauré and Poulenc
'The disc is awash with inaccuracies of rhythm and dynamics'
Chabrier: Orchestral Works
Chabrier
Orchestral works
Chabrier: Dix pièces pittoresques
Such vivacious, tender, immediate and shockingly original music would be in every pianist’s repertoire, if only Chabrier had made it lie under the hands as naturally as Debussy or Chopin. The over-modestly titled Pièces pittoresques are really his Preludes, ten varied sound poems which search the soul and come up with not angst nor rage, but a unique combination of joy, vulnerability, and an excitable nature that verges on impatience, as if life were far too short to deliver all its promises.
Chabrier: Dix pièces pittoresques
Such vivacious, tender, immediate and shockingly original music would be in every pianist’s repertoire, if only Chabrier had made it lie under the hands as naturally as Debussy or Chopin. The over-modestly titled Pièces pittoresques are really his Preludes, ten varied sound poems which search the soul and come up with not angst nor rage, but a unique combination of joy, vulnerability, and an excitable nature that verges on impatience, as if life were far too short to deliver all its promises.
Chabrier • Chausson • Fauré • Hahn • Poulenc
Don’t be misled by the title! By far the majority of the songs here are not chansons, but mélodies. That’s to say, they deal with profound emotions, and both Lynne Dawson and Julius Drake perform them as such. No whiff, I’m glad to say, of condescending treatment as though of the Lied’s little sister. At the same time the songs that are truly chansons, such as Chabrier’s ‘Villanelle des petits canards’ and Poulenc’s ‘Nous voulons une petite soeur’, are thrown off with delightful wit and charm.
Faure, Ravel, Duparc, Gounod, Chabrier, Bizet, Franck, Roussel
Such are the freshness and vitality of Monteux's performances here, that one might easily mistake them for the work of a brilliantly accomplished youth. This is a collection to treasure. Monteux was a conductor who spurned idiosyncrasy and exaggeration of every kind in favour of a subtly disciplined lyricism which, for all the guiding mind and hand behind it, is never rigid or over precise. From the spiritual grandeur of Beethoven's Eroica to the most delicate colouristic shadings of Debussy,
Chabrier: Piano Works
Some stereotypes: French music, especially piano music, is characterised by. its colour and charm, the finesse of its detail, its jeweller-like craftsmanship; Germanic music, especially piano music, is concerned more with form, idea, metaphysics, development.
Offenbach, Massenet, Auber, Saint-Sa‘ns, Berlioz, Gounod, Ravel, Thomas & Chabrier
Calling a disc L’étoile risks charges of hubris, but Jennifer Larmore is a mezzo of the starriest order, and it’s hard to imagine a more engaging showcase for her luxuriant voice and formidable technique. From Auber (the bravura piece ‘Ô Palerme,
Ô Sicile’ from Zerline, with its thrilling coloratura) to Ravel (‘Oh! la pitoyable aventure’ from L’heure espagnole, with its frustrated emotion), via Massenet, Offenbach and Thomas, this winning recital of French arias, some familiar, some not, is proof of daunting and undaunted versatility.
Chabrier, Mozart, Delius, Debussy, Saint-Sa‘ns, Berlioz & Massenet
Only if one is averse to merely decent mono sound is this disc of mostly Gallic bon-bons anything less than delightful. Thomas Beecham’s leadership undoubtedly involved a significant level of craft, but the impression left by these performances (and two wittily delivered spoken introductions) is how much he seemed to relish the music he conducted. He shows particularly obvious affection for Mozart’s Divertimento, K131, in the lovingly expansive inflections in its Adagio and the grandeur and pomp he brings to the rich horn-writing in the slow introduction to the last movement.
Bizet, Granados, Chabrier, T‡rrega, Turina, de Falla & Rimsky-Korsakov
Party-piece disc of the year features spectacular versions of mostly orchestral pieces. Chabrier's Espana achieves the impossible, though flair, quick thinking and a feel for colour are everywhere. The title number, part satire, cleverly deconstructs the opera and other composers' Spanish fantasies. Robert Maycock
Chabrier: Briséïs
Chabrier’s uncompleted opera Briséîs deals with the clash between a young Christianity and sensuous paganism. The score owes much to Wagner, but also manages to point to new paths for French music. This recording was made at last year’s Edinburgh Festival – the work’s first performance in Britain. Joan Rodgers and Mark Padmore as the lovers sing with great passion and clarity, and Ossonce brings together all the forces in a committed and often exhilarating account. William Humphreys-Jones
Chabrier: Pièces pittoresques; Impromptu; Aubade; Ballabile; Ronde champêtre; Trois valses romantiques
This is fun: the music is full of pleasing character, exuberance and memorable melodies, with Chabrier’s fondness for Spanish flavours much in evidence. There are gems not only among the more familiar Pièces pittoresques but in the remaining pieces too: the Caprice, for instance, is a mysterious, nocturnal work, not capricious at all. Kathryn Stott’s playing has delightful inner élan and bounciness – she sounds as if she’s enjoying every minute. Jessica Duchen
Chabrier: Complete Mélodies
Poulenc knew nothing more impertinent in all French song than Chabrier’s camp little ‘Lied: Nez au vent’ – though English listeners would enjoy it here so much more if only song texts were provided. And if only Belgian baritone Ludovic de San sang with as much elegance as eagerness, and if only his accompanist made the piano sing as well – then this admirable compilation of all Chabrier’s emotionally robust and irresistibly idiosyncratic songs could be given the warm welcome it deserves. Hilary Finch
Chabrier: Gwendoline
Set in ninth-century England, Gwendoline concerns the tragic, death-climaxed love of a Viking for a Saxon chief’s daughter. It’s a curious concentration of arias, ensembles, choruses and set-pieces, of intensity and bombast, melodrama and sentimentality; where Wagner and Verdi rub shoulders, and Bellini meets Sousa by the light of Pelléas.
Chabrier: Pièces pittoresques; Joyeuse marche; Valses romantiques; Aubade
Almost every French composer of piano music up to Poulenc acknowledged a debt to Chabrier. Franck called him a new beginning. But Chabrier’s subtle and effervescent style is very hard to capture. Pianos almost collapsed at the pounding of Chabrier himself, and French pianists have tended to play his music with relentless, steely fingers.
Chabrier: Suite pastorale; Habanera; España; Larghetto for Horn and Orchestra; Gwendoline Overture; Prélude pastoral; Marche française; Fête polonaise
John Eliot Gardiner’s enthusiastic advocacy of the Gallic tradition here results in a winning anthology of a composer whose work typifies three of its essential virtues: delicacy, vivacity and wit.
The Vienna Philharmonic essays a convincing French accent, with tangy oboes and clarinets, while Gardiner, deft and sensitive to the idiom, misses only the last ounce of sheer pep required by the more extrovert pieces, where a slightly more raucous, Latin approach would not have come amiss.
Schumann, Wolf, Franck, Chausson, Fauré, Chabrier, Stanford, Haydn Wood, John Musto
The scent of violets and rosemary really does seem to rise from Graham Johnson’s opening chords to meet the melancholy within Felicity Lott’s voice in Schumann’s ‘Mein Garten’, the first song of this horticultural recital. As Richard Stokes, in his apt and anecdotal notes points out, the word ‘anthology’ originally meant a collection of flowers; and these are of the freshest.
Ravel: Miroirs; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Jeux d'eau; Prélude; À la manière de Borodine; À la manière de Chabrier; Sérénade grotesque; Menuet sur le nom de Haydn
Ravel orchestrated so many of his piano pieces that the temptation is to suggest that they are short-score versions of orchestral works. This would be to overlook Ravel’s genius for orchestration, since his writing for the piano is both idiomatic and thoroughly original. Nevertheless, it is difficult not to think of particular orchestral textures when listening to certain works: trilling piccolo in ‘Une barque sur l’océan’ (Miroirs), for instance, or pizzicato strings in Pavane pour une infante défunte.
Chabrier: España; Suite pastorale; Joyeuse marche
Chabrier’s style is robust, witty, tinged with irony and at times sub-Wagnerian. This disc contains most of his orchestral music, including the colourful España (why is so much of the best Spanish music by French composers?). Those nurtured on Beecham’s unforgettable recording of the Joyeuse marche will find Jordan rather flat-footed and short on the joie, but he makes a strong case for the bulk of this agreeable and varied programme. Wadham Sutton