CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2013)

L’ENFANCE

CLAIRE DÉSERT &

EMMANUEL STROSSER, Piano Duet

Mirare 190 / *****

Composers have over the centuries sought to relive memories of their formative years through simplicity and childlikeness in music. Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood and Debussy’s Children’s Corner Suite for piano solo are good examples of this. In the piano duet genre, the French have the field to themselves, represented by these four works. Masterpieces in miniature may describe Gabriel Faure’s Dolly Suite, the seamless lyricism of its Berceuse and Dolly’s Garden has rarely been matched. The 12 movements of Georges Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants (Children’s Games) are also varied delights, whether playing with toy soldiers (Trumpet and Drum), dolls (Little Husband, Little Wife), spinning tops or bounding beach balls.

Both Debussy’s Petite Suite and Ravel’s Mother Goose have orchestral versions which have become ballet spectaculars, but it is the piano duets that remain true to the original spirit. The dances by Debussy, which include a Cortege, Minuet and Ballet, sound more authentic in this guise. Best of all are Ravel’s characterisations of Charles Perrault’s tales. Gamelan effects in Princess of The Pagodas, the gauche waltz in  Conversations of Beauty and the Beast, and the splashy glissandi in The Fairy’s Garden bring out orchestral effects, if only imagined. French pianists Claire Désert and Emmanuel Strosser are well-known soloists in their own right, but together they find an uncommon chemistry which makes these enchanting performances glitter and come alive for all their innocence.

TRIO OWON / Review

TRIO OWON
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Friday (11 November 2011)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 14 January 2011 with the title "Like a whiff of exotic perfume".

This begins to sound like a broken record-player, but if you love good chamber music, often performed by world class players, you could do worse than becoming a Conservatory regular. This evening’s visiting group, Trio Owon, formed by violinist Olivier Charlier, cellist Sung-Won Yang and pianist Emmanuel Strosser, all Paris Conservatory alumni, qualifies to be world class.

Their recital was virtually a history of the piano trio genre. Joseph Haydn is often credited as the “father of the piano trio”. His G major trio (No.39 out of 40) gets played more than all the others combined. Little surprise as it is a most congenial work, beginning with variations where violin and piano play mostly the same melody with cello providing simple harmony. The claim to fame is its Gypsy Rondo, favourite of child pianists, performed with a breezy and carefree elan by the trio.

This was merely warm-up practice for Ravel’s sublime Piano Trio in A minor, one of the great chamber masterpieces of the early 20th century. Its hushed and syncopated opening was deftly coloured, conjuring the sense of a whiff of exotic perfume, which got headier in the scherzo-like Pantoum.

Structured like verses of the Malay pantun but without Asiatic themes, the movement bristled with vitality, contrasted with the solemn procession of the ensuing Passacaille. The finale, which used pentatonic themes, provided the grand conclusion, rising to a voluminous crescendo with the threesome engaged in full throttle. Cue huge cheers from the audience.

The clock was turned back by almost a century for Schubert’s Second Piano Trio in E flat major (K.929), the less often heard of two trios. Its Biedermeyer charm, characteristic of Vienna in the first half of the 19th century, was disarming. Much in the spirit of the better-known Trout Quintet, its conviviality was akin to three friends sharing different versions of a same joke over coffee.

The chemistry between the three performers was innately felt, with the ensemble water-tight but with ample room to breathe. How Yang’s cello waxed lyrical in the slow movement’s song without words, and the good-humour of the Scherzo and Trio infectiously borne.

The drawn-out finale’s goodwill never waned, and there was vicarious thrill to the sequences of repeated notes played by the increasingly frayed hairs of Charlier’s bow and Strosser’s lightning swift fingers. Multiple curtain calls ensured two generous encores – movements from trios by Dvorak and Mendelssohn. Just about perfect.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2011)

RACHMANINOV Piano Concertos Nos.3 & 4
LEIF OVE ANDSNES, Piano
Berlin Philharmonic / Antonio Pappano
EMI Classics 640516 2 / ****1/2

Some people would consider it perverse to describe the Russian Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) as a 20th century composer. Although he lived well into the last century, his musical language was deeply rooted in 19th century romantic aesthetics, not much more advanced than the scores of his idol and mentor Tchaikovsky. The popular Third Piano Concerto, once considered nigh unplayable, has been well-served by many of today’s proficient keyboard technicians. The far less celebrated Fourth Concerto, completed in 1926 when the composer was in permanent exile, was criticised for not replicating the earlier successes.

A pity, as it is a more subtle work that saw a progression of Rachmaninov’s creative palette. By now, luxuriant melodies and lush harmonies had given way to a more gritty, percussive and hard-hitting idiom, more allied with his younger rival Prokofiev. However it retains the bittersweet nostalgia and melancholy that pervades all his works. Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes finds the right balance between vehemence and sentimentality in both concertos, which makes for an invigorating listen.

BOOK IT:
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No.3 with ALBERT TIU, Piano

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.10
Orchestra of the Music Makers / Christopher Adey, Conductor
26 August 2011, Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm
Tickets available at SISTIC

CHABRIER Piano Music
EMMANUEL STROSSER, Piano
Mirare 116 / ****

The reputation of Frenchman Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) has often rested on the immense popularity of works like España and the Fête Polonaise, (from the opera Le Roi Malgré Lui), casting him as a composer of light, frothy music, one not to be taken too seriously. He was by profession a lawyer and civil servant, but a highly adroit pianist. This collection of his often delightful piano pieces is revealing. The ten Pieces Pittoresques (Picturesque Pieces) are also his most familiar, the pastoral quality of Paysage, Idylle and Village Dance lend a lie to his so-called frivolity. The eighth piece Improvisation however looks forward to the introspection of late Fauré and impressionistic colours of Debussy and Ravel.

The Five Posthumous Pieces (published 1897) have an understated charm, while the jovial Bourrée Fantasque is in the same vein of humour that Poulenc (born 1899) mined, not to mention a spirit that infects some of the earlier Messiaen (born 1908). As a tribute, Ravel’s In the Manner of Chabrier, a insouciant portrait of Chabrier improvising on a Gounod melody, is included. French pianist Emmanuel Strosser crafts a light but occasionally terse sound, quite apt for the composer hailed as “The Angel of Drollery”.