SATIE & COMPAGNIE
ANNE QUEFFÉLEC, Piano
Mirare 189 / *****
Erik Satie (1866-1925) was an important figure
in French music, a guiding light for the cause of simplicity and transparency,
opposing the Teutonic complexities of Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg and their kind
who were dictating the course of musical expression. He was the master of the
piano miniature, the epitome being his three Gymnopedies and six Gnossiennes,
the refreshing terseness and drolleries of which can only be imitated. He also
delighted in unpretentious frivolities of the dancehall, the silliness coming
through explicitly in his suites Le Belle
Excentrique, Three Pieces in the
Shape of a Pear, and the little waltz Le
Piccadilly.
Veteran French pianist Anne Queffélec astutely
plays these in small groups, separated by music of Satie’s contemporaries,
friends and allies. Debussy impressionisms are omitted, instead we hear his
dreamy Reverie, Clair de lune and The Little
Negro (first cousin to the Golliwogg’s
Cakewalk), while Ravel is represented by his little known Fanfare (for 4 hands) and In the Manner of Chabrier, where the
subject is improvising on a Gounod tune. The French belle époque is relived in
Reynaldo Hahn’s Le Banc Songeur (The Bench Dreamer), Frontispiece and Hivernale,
and assorted shorts by Deodat de Severac (The
Old Music Box), Charles Koechlin, Florent Schmitt, Francis Poulenc and
Pierre-Octave Ferroud. One cannot imagine these performed with more intimacy or
sensitivity.
BRITISH WORKS
FOR CELLO & PIANO
Volume 1
PAUL WATKINS, Cello
HUW WATKINS, Piano
Chandos 10741 / ****1/2
Works
for cello and piano by British Romantic composers are not exactly familiar in
these parts, but this new series by the Welsh duo of Paul and Huw Watkins aims
to change that. The Cello Sonata of
1879-80 by Hubert Parry (1848-1918) owes a debt of influence to Brahms, whom he
had hoped to study with. Like his idol, Parry’s creative use of simple themes
and melodies build into memorable moments which amply fill its 27 minutes.
Of
the same stature is the Sonata (1905)
by John Foulds (1880-1939), the only composer in this anthology who was a
professional cellist himself. Also
highly tonal, its slightly more dissonant idiom gives it a grittier edge in the
outer movements, while the central slow movement is achingly beautiful, much in
the manner which Elgar used to tug at the heartstrings.
The
single-movement Sonata (1916) by
Frederick Delius (1862-1934) is typical of his quasi-impressionist style,
reflective and ruminative, having the quality of a fantasy. Hamabdil (1919) by Granville Bantock
(1868-1948), who was not Jewish, is a Hebrew melody (sung at the end of
Sabbath) reminiscent of Bruch’s familiar Kol
Nidrei. Indeed this miniature is the one most likely to be heard again, but
in reality, all the works deserve to be better known, given the highly
committed playing and ardent advocacy. Warmly recommended.
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