Michel Portal / Paul Meyer / Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie DOUBLE

DOUBLE

 

Emmanuel Pahud / Paul Meyer / Daishin Kashimoto / Zvi Plesser / Éric Le Sage VIENNE 1900

VIENNE 1900

Éric Le Sage / Paul Meyer / Claudio Bohórquez BEETHOVEN Trios for Clarinet, Cello & Piano

With this new series entitled ‘Salon de musique’, Alpha presents recordings made by artists who have enlivened the Festival of Salon de Provence for some years now: the pianist Eric le Sage, who has made many recordings for Alpha, the clarinettist Paul Meyer etc… with cellist Claudio Bohórquez, they have now put two Beethoven trios on disc.

By 1798, the year Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Trio for piano, clarinet and cello op.11, he was already well-known in Vienna as a remarkable improviser and an ambitious young composer. the piece was clearly aimed at the enlightened aristocracy, as well as competent musical amateurs. This did not prevent the critics, though universally positive, from judging the score to be over-complex in places. Dedicated to the Empress Marie-Theresa of Austria, the Septet was published in 1802 by Hofmeister, and on being well-received it was then rearranged for various combinations. Beethoven himself made a version for clarinet, cello and piano, op.38 in E Flat major – the one recorded here.

GUILLAUME CONNESSON Musique de chambre

Guillaume Connesson, born in 1970, is currently one of the most widely performed French composers worldwide. Commissions are at the origin of most of his works (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France...) including Pour sortir au jour, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2013) and Les Trois Cités de Lovecraft (co-commission of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon). Moreover, his music is regularly played by numerous orchestras (Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra et al.)
He won a Victoires de la Musique award in 2015 as well as Sacem’s Grand Prize in 2012.
His discography includes, amongst others, two monographs of chamber music and two symphonic monographs on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The first, Lucifer, obtained a ’ Choc’ from Classica magazine, and the second, Pour sortir au jour, numerous critical distinctions such as the ’Diapason d’Or de l’Année’ as well the Classica ’Choc de l’Année’.
After studies at the Conservatoire National de Région in Boulogne-Billancourt (his birthplace) and the Paris Conservatoire, he obtained premiers prix in choral direction, history of music, analysis, electro-acoustic and orchestration.
He has been professor of orchestration at the Aubervilliers-La Courneuve Conservatory since 1997.
In residence from 2016 to 2018 with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with the Orchestre National de Lyon, he is also devoting himself to the composition of an opera, Les Bains macabres (on a libretto by Olivier Bleys), commissioned by the Opéra National de Bordeaux.

Gil Shaham / Paul Meyer / Jian Wang / Myung-Whun Chung MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps

How four solid musicians of international repute can produce so blemished a recording of Messiaen’s chamber music masterpiece is anyone’s guess, let alone approve it for release. The most glaring inaccuracies pockmark the serene final movement. Here Myung-Whun Chung misreads each 32nd note as a 16th. Did the composer really want this? Gil Shaham’s intonation is not what it should be, and neither is Paul Meyer’s. The latter’s long sustained E-sharps in the unaccompanied third movement, along with the low B-sharp at measure eight, will make sensitive ears wince. Long before this disc was released in the U.S., one of my European colleagues drew attention to cellist Jian Wang’s early start of the glissando in the fourth movement’s third-to-last measure, which throws the ensemble off. In the fifth movement, Wang prepares for high notes with pronounced left-hand shifts that often telegraph the pitch a split second before it’s supposed to be heard. Tashi’s Fred Sherry, by contrast, controls his instrument to the fullest degree, and achieves a more sustained, singing line. To my taste, the pronounced, unwritten ritard at the climax one measure before letter D robs the subsequent “ppp subito” effect of its hushed devastation. The fiery, unison sixth movement aggressively barnstorms when it should joyously dance, and Chung’s handling of Messiaen’s bird-like flourishes lacks sparkle and definition. Fortunately, Tashi’s infinitely more characterful, soul-searching, and accurate 1975 RCA recording is still available. Maybe RCA will even remaster it for its High Performance series: hint, hint, nudge, nudge. But if you happen upon an open copy of this DG release, remove the booklet and read the extraordinary interview with cellist Etienne Pasquier, one of the four musicians who gave the work’s first performance in a German prisoner-of-war camp. (Jed Distler)