Search - Paul [composer] Dukas, Chantal Stigliani :: Dukas: Complete Piano Music

All of Dukas' Piano Music on One CD

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains, as far as I know, the complete piano music of Paul Dukas (1865-1936), who is of course best-known for his scintillating tone poem 'The Sorceror's Apprentice.' That work, it has always struck me, was not typical of Dukas' style and, indeed, that may account for his other works not being very well known. He tended to be a very serious composer, one whose craftmanship was meticulous. And he wrote very slowly and self-critically. Indeed, although he was himself a fine pianist, this CD of 75 minutes contains all the piano music he allowed to be published. Two of the works here are major--the 'Grande Sonate ' in E flat minor, and 'Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme of Rameau.' Also included here are the homage to Haydn, 'Prélude élégiaque' and the deliciously impressionistic 'Plainte, au loin, du faune,' both played expertly and sensitively here.I fell in love with the Piano Sonata thirty years ago when it was recorded by Anne Queffelec on the MHS label; it is no longer available and as far as I know never made it to CD. That recording of this eminently 'grande' sonata was weighty enough but leavened by a French lucidity that made its unremitting high-mindedness a bit easier to accept. A subsequent recording by Margaret Fingerhut was, in a word, dull. Here we have a French pianist heretofore unknown to me, Chantal Stigliani, who not only gets it right, she finds lightness and even humor in the scherzo, which is marked Vivement, avec légèreté; this comes close to Queffelec's almost manic treatment and she even manages to inject a quintessentially French frothiness to the rapidly alternating chords that form the basis of much of the movement. She also plays the scherzo's fugal section elegantly. The finale, a majestic edifice lasting almost 15 minutes, is handled with a keen eye to its subtle architecture and she underlines the return of the first movement's first theme, making for a 'grande', even grandiose, final statement. This sonata, written at approximately the same time as Alban Berg's hyperchromatic Op. 1 sonata that looked forward to atonality, has always seemed to me to be a farewell to the tradition of the Big Romantic Piano Sonata. It deserves to be better known. This recording, at a nominal price, makes that possible for the curious music-lover who hasn't made its acquaintance before.The Rameau piece, whose title looks Franckian but whose treatment is not, is an unalloyed joy. The light-hearted baroque theme is subjected to 12 variations, none of them straying far from the theme's infectious melody. And although there is some chromatic polyphony in Variation 5, the harmonic treatment is fairly conservative. There is a serene Interlude between Variations 11 and 12 and it prepares us for the longest, most complex, but most-lighthearted of the variations which concludes the 19-minute piece.This is a very welcome release and I hope its low price will help introduce many listeners to the wonders of the 'other' Dukas.Scott Morrison"

The French Medtner

Hexameron | 04/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I always thought Paul Dukas (1865-1935) had nothing else to show the world except his famous symphonic poem, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," a work that secured a celebrity status by Disney's Fantasia. Whether I hear its famous tune on commercials or at Halloween concerts, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is all I ever knew he composed. I've recently come to learn that Dukas has a significant Symphony and ballet under his belt, but had I known Dukas had composed such marvelous piano works as showcased here, I would have chosen to explore this French master sooner. Thus it should come as no surprise that I've never heard any of these works before.



Labeled by many as the French Hammerklavier, the Piano Sonata in E flat minor is a breathtaking work of emotional weight and exquisite craftsmanship. Dukas, like Scriabin, Medtner and Rachmaninov, has plenty of new ideas and manages to express them with a fresh outlook in the twentieth century, proving that the old Sonata-Allegro form is a perfect vehicle. Combining elements of 19th century piano-writing and the new Russian style, this work is bursting with Romanticism and drama. However, Dukas's individuality is imprinted in each phrase: he often muffles his own gushing lyricism or tries to calm the emotional climaxes before they explode. While this might be comparable to putting a muzzle on Schumann's Fantasie in C major, Dukas, like Saint-Saens, instead establishes an agreeable symmetry between the expressive and intellectual content of this music.



Naxos's epitaph that this Sonata is "acknowledged to be one of the twentieth century's greatest works for piano" is not so exaggerated. The first movement is emotionally-charged and full of lush harmonies; the second is genuinely beautiful and full of complex melodic ideas that draw from Chopin and Scriabin. The third movement, a brilliant and virtuosic piece in tripartite form fuses Chopin's grace with Alkan's frenetic propulsion to create a riveting work of overwhelming drama. Only a dissonant interlude, or trio section, if you will, gives the pianist a break before the last onslaught; as if mocking the previous fireworks, Dukas ends the work in pianissimo with a two chord cadence. Surely, though, the last movement is the monument of this composition. The Sonata's best themes can be found here: an intense and sombre first theme, a divine second theme derivative of Liszt's Sonata in B minor, and themes from the first movement briefly return.



Since I've never heard this work before, I don't know how Chantal Stigliani compares with Marc-Andre Hamelin's execution found here:Dukas: Piano Sonata; Decaux; Clairs de Lune. Despite my ignorance, Stigliani seems both meticulous and unrestrained in pulling as much sonority as she can from the lower registers of the piano. Her clarity and balanced playing is evident because I can hear many melodic lines under her fingers. And her emotional involvement is readily heard, especially in the last two movements.



The other works on this disc are also neglected French treasures. "La Plainte, au loin, du faune" is Debussyan and mystical. The incessant pulse of a single G note acts as a bizarre harmonic substratum for the outer sections of music. You would think drumming out a G note over and over would get monotonous, but the originality of this piece doesn't allow for monotony: the music oozes with meaningful and graceful ideas. Similarly, the "Prelude elegiaque" exhibits sumptuous tone coloring and Scriabinesque tonal ambiguity. The texture is simple but the unpredictable statements make it a mysterious miniature. Dukas's "Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme of Rameau" is a heady and totally substantial composition. It boggles the mind for us amateur listeners how a composer can take such a banal theme and transform it into a powerful monster like the dark 11th variation and the radiant Finale.



Bottom line: Dukas should not be relegated to the one-hit wonder list with his Sorcerer's Apprentice; he should be taken more seriously. The consistent quality of this piano music, the strength of his structural ideas, and the passion of his musical communication reminds me of the Russian composer, Nikolai Medtner. The cheap price, Hyperion/DG quality of performances and the impressive piano music found here proves that Naxos is in the business of creating precious recordings."

Dukas wrote Fauré's Sonata for him...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 12/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Fauré--the greatest of all French composers--wrote much excellent piano music; however, he did not essay that most important of genres the piano sonata.

It sounds here as if Dukas wrote Fauré's Sonata for him. In other words, Dukas' Sonata sounds remarkably Fauréan--which is a good thing.

This Sonata of Dukas falls in with the general ethos of many others of the post-Wagnerian post-Franckian Franco-Belgian school of the turn-of-the-century (e.g., Caplet, Tournemire, Magnard, Cras, Lekeu, Vierne, Pierne, d'Indy, Fauré, et al.).

It's a very fine piece in the ultra-rare key of eb-minor. (One of Scriabin's early sonatas is in the same key, and in fact this piece has many Scriabinesque inflections.)

Dukas' Sonata is a large excellent work and absolutely worthy of a prominent place in the repertoire."