François Salque / Eric Le Sage BEETHOVEN Les Sonates pour Violoncelle et Piano

Beethoven's cello sonatas were among the first works to explore the potential of the cello as a solo chamber instrument. French cellist François Salque catches the nature of this status in his splendid recordings of the early Op. 5 sonatas on this two-disc Sony set: it's a lively recording in which the cello seems to grow into its new role. Sample the unexpectedly massive (16-minute) opening movement of the Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5, No. 1, a sort of extended essay in the development of new sonorities for cello and piano; in Salque's hands the cello seems constantly to be stepping to the forefront in unexpected ways. Salque and pianist Eric Le Sage deliver suave readings in a classic French tradition, and their approach works wonderfully in the Op. 5 sonatas, less well in the middle-period Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69, and once again excitingly in the late fourth and fifth sonatas, which also were stylistically transitional works and among the first in which Beethoven's late style really showed itself. Here again, the precise ways of Salque and Le Sage yield results in terms of clarity in the big new fugal finale of the Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2, and especially in the complex ebb and flow of the two-movement (or is it four?) Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102, No. 1. With fine sound from the Salle de la Conservatoire de Liège, this is Gallic Beethoven playing at a high level. (James Manheim)

François Salque / Claire-Marie Le Guay SCHUBERT Wanderer

Is it the lure of the unknown or the need to run away from something that prompts the Romantic ‘Wanderer’ to roam the world without any precise aim? If ever he encounters happiness where he is, his solitary itinerary nevertheless retains an initiatory quality. The lieder of Franz Schubert, here transcribed for cello and piano, explore all the nuances of this inner quest, in which a journey both painful and comforting finally leads to tranquillity and a sort of transcendence.

In November 1824 Franz Schubert composed a sonata in A minor (D821) specifically intended for performance on the arpeggione, a stringed instrument that enjoyed no more than an ephemeral existence. Patented in 1823 by Johann Georg Stauffer (1778–1853), one of the most important Viennese luthiers of the early nineteenth century, the arpeggione (also known as ‘guitarre d’amour’ at the time) offered a compromise between the guitar and the cello. While retaining several features of the guitar – the six strings and their tuning, the neck with its twenty-two frets for positioning the fingers and the smoothly contoured body – it was played like the cello, between the knees, with the vibration of the strings produced by a bow. Today there are no more than a dozen arpeggiones in the world (either originals or copies); the timbre of these instruments was very close to that of the nineteenth-century cello and to the viola, less rounded and warm than the modern cello, but richer in upper harmonics.

Svetlin Roussev / Elena Rozanova / François Salque DVORAK - MENDELSSOHN Piano Trios

Elena Rozanova created the Rachmaninov Piano Trio in 1998 with Svetlin Roussev and Andrej Melik to perform at the prestigious International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne in 1999. They were awarded the prize for best interpretation of a contemporary piece. The Trio had already impressed various directors of European festivals, during the preliminary trials in Paris.
They performed during various musical seasons, for example at the Midis Musicaux du Théâtre du Châtelet. After the concert they gave at La Roque d'Anthéron, L'Humanité wrote "with the arrival of this new Trio, the Wanderers and Guarneri will have to push themselves!" In January 2005, François Salque joined the Trio because Andrej Melik's career in Germany had become too demanding. The trio changed its name to Roussev/Salque/Rozanova Trio.
Between 1993 and 1998, Svetlin Roussev was awarded more than ten prizes in international competitions and played with many orchestras such as the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis. He gave recitals in China, South Corea, Taiwan as well as in Europe and the United States. Svetlin Roussev is concert solo of the Orchestre de Radio France and teaches at the CSNM in Paris.
Runner-up in many international competitions such as Lausanne (first prize unanimously), Munich, Geneva, Tchaikovsky, François Salque was awarded the most important prizes ever given to a French cellist in these competitions. For five years, he was part of the Ysaÿe Quartet but left them in December 2004. He plays regularly with artists such as Jean-Claude Pennetier, Brigitte Engerer, Barry Douglas, Itamar Golan, Emmanuel Pahud, Alexandre Tharaud...