CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2013)

CHOPIN De l‘enfance à la plénitude

ANNE QUEFFÉLEC, Piano

Mirare 096 / *****

This is not a new recording, but its 81 minutes contain a microcosm of Frederic Chopin’s art of pianism  and composition, from his prodigious childhood (hence the title which translates roughly as Childhood of Plenty) to his all-too-premature death at the age of 39. His earliest recorded work and last creative utterance are the bookends to this marvellous anthology. The first 20 minutes are virtually unknown, beginning with two juvenile Polonaises, in B flat major and G minor, remarkable efforts by a mere 7-year-old.

By 18, the Polonaise in F minor, with its more sophisticated touches, begins to reveal an originality that we recognise as the adult Chopin. His love for native Poland is also deeply felt in his last work, the Mazurka in A minor (Op.67 No.4), from 1848, his penultimate year. Its simplicity, also found in the late Waltz in A minor, shows that he had come a full circle.

In between these are the great stand-alone works from 1842 to 1846, including the sublime Berceuse (Op.57) and endlessly lyrical Barcarolle (Op.60). Veteran French pianist Anne Queffélec mines the rich vein of cantabile in these, and nimbly scales the torrid virtuosic heights of the Fourth Ballade (Op.52) and Fourth Scherzo (Op.54), which form the pinnacle of Chopin’s oeuvre. The transformation of talent and potential to outright genius and “industry leader”, to use modern parlance, is the overriding joy of this album.     

STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du Printemps

100^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

Decca 478 3729 (20 CDs) / *****

Igor Stravinsky’s epoch-making ballet The Rite Of Spring for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiered to an infamous riotous reception 100 years ago in Paris. Yet a year later it was hailed as one of the 20^th century’s great masterpieces. This handsome box-set brings together 38 orchestral recordings of this iconic classic from the vast catalogue of the Universal labels. The earliest dates from 1946 with Eduard van Beinum conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra in grainy monoaural sound, while the latest is the slick 2010 account by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. How times have changed and orchestras have progressed.

While most performances take between 32 and 34 minutes, the range of timings can differ widely, from Antal Dorati’s Minneapolis Symphony (1959) account that frenetically flies under the half hour to Leonard Bernstein’s expansive 37 minutes with the Israel Philharmonic (1982). There are two versions from Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic from 1965 and the mid-1970s, his pristine unruffled approach in the former drawing disparage from Stravinsky himself, who called it, “too polished, a savage pet rather than a real one”.

For this pair of ears, the version by Riccardo Chailly and the Cleveland Orchestra (1985) is the one to beat, uniting primal savagery and sumptuously balanced orchestral sound, with all the fine details to boot. There are three versions of Stravinsky’s original score for piano duet here, the glitziest coming from Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andrei Gavrilov (1990). A further bonus is Stravinsky conducting his own Violin Concerto with violinist Samuel Dushkin from 1935. For lovers of this endlessly fascinating score, this release is a godsend.   

CD Reviews (August 2013, The Straits Times)

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.