Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire / Pascal Rophé ALBERT ROUSSEL Le festin de l'araignée PAUL DUKAS L'apprenti sorcier - Polyeucte Overture

                                                               ALBERT ROUSSEL - PAUL DUKAS

Neave Trio FRENCH MOMENTS

One year after its first Chandos recording, the young Neave Trio explores some of the most prominent French composers of the early 20^th century in their new album.

The dominant piece here is the much lesser-known trio by Roussel: only the second of his completed works to be published. Offering a unique musical world of contrasting shapes and colours elegantly thought through and at times atmospheric, this is a gem not to be missed.

This is followed by Debussy’s early piano trio, performed with a bright and radiant approach that provides great moments of lightness and clarity.

It ends with the ever-popular trio in D by Fauré, an exploration of the deformation of high and low sounds composed at the end of his life when beset by deafness. Neave’s accurate and balanced interpretations perfectly capture the complexity and tension of the piece which in late Fauré comes abundantly from texture and movement.

Lise de la Salle BACH UNLIMITED

In just a few years, through her international concert appearances and her award-winning Naïve recordings, 29 year-old Lise de la Salle has established a reputation as one of today’s most exciting young artists and as a musician of uncommon sensibility and maturity. Her playing inspired a Washington Post critic to write, “For much of the concert, the audience had to remember to breathe… the exhilaration didn’t let up for a second until her hands came off the keyboard.” 

A native of France, Ms. de la Salle first came to international attention in 2005, at the age of 16, with a Bach/Liszt recording that Gramophone Magazine selected as „Recording of the Month.“ Ms. de la Salle, who records for the Naïve label, was then similarly recognized in 2008 for her recording of the first concertos of Liszt, Prokofiev and Shostakovich – a remarkable feat for someone only 20 years old. Recent recordings offered works of Schumann and the Complete Works of Rachmaninoff for Piano and Orchestra with Fabio Luisi and the Philharmonia Zurich. 

The 2017-2018 season will see the release of a Bach-focused disc on Naïve including the Italian Concerto, the Liszt Fantasy & Fugue on the Theme B.A.C.H. and the Bach/Busoni Chaconne.

“Bach…where everything begins.”

Since the 18th century, a number of composers have paid hommage to Jean-Sebastian Bach, often considered the musical touch-stone: the perfect balance between science, form, expression and emotion.

Preludes and Fugues; transcriptions; or the musical motif made from the letters of his name: these hommages have come in many forms. In the captivating and fascinating programme by Lise de la Salle, we find works by Bach himself, Poulenc, Busoni, Roussel and Liszt. And then, like a fresh breath of air from the heart of our current century, interspersed between the works of the masters we find four new pieces commissioned from the pianist Thomas Enhco. The result is an essential, modern recording, an unprecedented journey into the essence of music, in which Lise de la Salle exhibits all her pianistic talent, as well as a profound intellectual knowledge.

It’s a long-considered recording, subtle yet powerful, that marks the 15th anniversary of the rich collaboration between Naïve and Lise de la Salle.

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)