John Finucane / Elisaveta Blumina FRENCH HOLIDAYS

Feather-light music played as light as a feather: this is John Finucane’s first GENUIN release in a nutshell. He joins on the recording with piano partner Elisaveta Blumina, who has already appeared on three CDs with the Leipzig label. In this exquisite combination of French Romanticism and Post-Romanticism, the virtuoso Irish clarinetist does not betray the slightest hint that he is performing some of the most challenging pieces written for his instrument. Works by Debussy, Françaix, Saint-Saëns, and Widor are played with such joy and naturalness that we feel transported to the world of Paul Verlaine or Marcel Proust.

Sebastian Bohren / CHAARTS Chamber Artists EQUAL

A singular combination of Beethoven's only violin concerto with Schumann's "Fantasy For Violin & Orchestra" Op. 131. The Fantasy was lauded at its premiere but today it is rarely seen on concert programs. In a letter dated June 2nd, 1853 and accompanied by a score of Beethoven's Violin Concerto - the link to our recording -, Joachim requested Schumann to write a Fantasy for the violin. A few months later in September, within a few short days, Schumann had sketched the Fantasy and sent it to Joachim for review. Joachim performed the Fantasy at the Schumann's home on September 28th and premiered it in Düsseldorf on October 27th with the orchestra under the baton of Schumann himself. The following year, on January 21st, Joachim performed the Fantasy again. On the same program, Schumann's wife Clara also performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E-flat major. It would be the last time Schumann heard both of them perform.

French composer Jean Françaix (1912-1997) has been an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's genius. He arranged Mozarts Quintet K. 452 for four woodwind instruments and piano for oboe, horn, clarinet, bassoon and string quintet. This particular version allows all the soloists from CHAARTS, to showcase their individuals skills.

With his sensitive and expressive playing, 27 year old Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren ranks among the most promising talents of his generation. The musician has given solo performances in the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Munich Residenz, the Tonhalle Zurich and the KKL Lucerne. He has played with orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Zürich, Chamber Aartists, Lucerne Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg State Orchestra. Sebastian Bohren plays a Stradivarius (King George 1710) generously lent to him by the Habisreutinger Foundation.

Alison Balsom / Tom Poster LÉGENDE

Star trumpeter Alison Balsom adds her first recital with piano to her rich Warner Classics catalogue. Recorded live at St George’s, Bristol, she and Tom Poster, her long-standing recital partner, explore fascinating works from the 20th century, by composers such as Enescu, Hindemith, Martinů, Françaix, Bernstein and Peter Maxwell Davies. They also present a work they themselves have composed jointly: The Thoughts of Dr. May, inspired by Brian May, lead guitarist of the rock band Queen.

2013 Gramophone Artist of the Year, three-time winner at the Classic BRITs and also three-time winner at the Echo Klassik Awards, Alison Balsom has cemented an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors and is ranked amongst the most distinctive and ground-breaking musicians on the international circuit today. “This day has been a long time coming,” she says. “We’ve wanted to record this … most important repertoire for trumpet and piano since we started playing together more than 10 years ago.” (Warner Classics)

Mirage Quintet FRENCH FLUTE CHAMBER MUSIC

Since they deserve to be named, the Mirage Quintet is: Robert Aitken, flute; Erica Goodman, harp; Jacques Israelivitch, violin; Teng Li, viola, and Winona Zelenka, cello. All of these players have the Toronto Symphony as their common denominator at some point in time. This superb disc explores the music of the early 20th-century French school, a cast of remarkably unified yet simultaneously divergent composers who all felt the influences of Debussy and Ravel, though I think it a mistake to overdue that consideration.

While the two aforementioned giants did of course exercise a profound influence, each of the composers listed are in no way carbon-copy “impressionist” clones by any stretch of the imagination. The closest to that category in my listening is Tournier, whose Suite is quite Ravel-like in substance and linear melody, reminding me of hisString Quartet. Florent Schmitt will be known to most people, studying under Faure and Debussy, and his Suite also shows some connections to Debussy’s aesthetic, but only just—he was still his own man and at least in this work was more classically concerned than his mentor.

Gabriel Pierne is familiar to many who play wind instruments, a typically Gallic composer with a great concern for clarity, wit, and stylistic congruity. These Variations are a perfect example of his art, succinct, clear as a bell, and rather rambunctious. Speaking of wit, no French composer had more of it than Jean Francaix, perhaps the quintessentially urbane classicist with a penchant for the madcap. Though he has been criticized, not without some justification, of “sameness” in his music, there are many pieces that completely avoid this appellation and demonstrate a profound sense of irony, drollness, sentimentality, and wistfulness, and this Quintet is one of them. Albert Roussel is the neoclassical composer par excellence, and this Serenade shows him in fine fashion, orderly and always looking back with a language that is distinctly modern—at least it was then.

The Mirage Quintet plays just beautifully, rich, warm tone, and with a quietly finessed sense of ensemble unanimity. The rather cavernous acoustics of St Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto are captured brilliantly on this recording, truly a marvel of elegance and a testament to Engineer Norbert Craft’s expertise. Highest recommendation then, an album that is guaranteed to bring much pleasure. (Steven Ritter)