Romantic and modern French music, centrepiece and natural development of
post-wagnerism in the Western culture, strikes us today with a wealth of outstanding masters, some extremely popular, some less known. Surely, there are discoveries to be made in these vast territories of musical genius, so this is our modest endeavour to describe the manifold French musical literature between the end of the 19th Century and World War II.
The late romantics first (Franck, Chausson, Fauré and Saint-Saëns), tracing the path for their wonder pupils (Ravel, Dukas, Schmitt, Roussel, Milhaud, Koechlin, Ibert), then, the master creator of all, Debussy, who soon became the main source of inspiration for the younger generation he himself belonged to.
We will travel through amazing masterpieces like Fauré's elegant yet deep piano pieces, Dukas' stunning
Piano Sonata (do not miss Françoise Thinat's sublime 1972 recording) and his
Symphony in C, or Chausson's
Symphony in B-Flat, Schmitt's sensational
debussysm in
Ombres for piano (a must-have, Werner Bärtschi's breathtaking account from 1982) or the delicate 2nd movement (Lent) of his
Piano Quintet (same disc). Further on, Frank Martin's unmistakable style, suspended between
impressionism and
modernism (not to be missed here, his magnificent
Mass for Double Choir).
Of course, I had to add a few gems by my beloved Debussy. One in particular I deem as the most enchanting of all - Susan Graham's honeyed, intoxicating vocal magic in the
(4) Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire. In this exhilarating performance, the Parisian Poet's timeless lyrics are cast into otherworldly spaces by the musical genius of "Claude de France", and eventually shine above the steamy, spellbinding orchestration of a Master of our time, John Adams.
(I dedicate this music to the memory of a great French woman -
R.I.P. Ingrid Pawoë: 20 August 1974 - 11 February 2013)
Georges Bizet
Chants du Rhin
Gabriel Fauré
Nocturnes (Selection)
Jean-Marc Luisada,
Piano
RCA BMG 74321 537302 (1997)
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