A welcome revival of Chabrier's piano music
Alan Lekan | Boulder, CO | 03/15/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After hearing the premier of Chabrier's "Pieces pittoresques," fellow-composer Cesar Franck proclaimed, "We have just heard something extraordinary! This music links our era with that of Couperin and Rameau." Indeed, Chabrier's music was quite extraordinary for its time and was a vital link in French romanticism and modernism as seen by Chabrier's influence of a generation of admiring French composers (in spite of his small output). Faure, Debussy, Poulenc, Satie and Ravel were among those bewitched by his novelty and pluck. Ravel's music often has the unmistaken stamp of Chabrier's unconventional rhythms and chromatic shifts. Some of Chabrier's works were even heralded as forerunners of modernism - such as the piece Sous-bois (track 6).
As heard in this CD, Emmanuel Chabrier [1841-1894] is one of the great originalists whose music sounds like no other. His writing often has great charm, frivolity, gaiety and innocence (Idylle, Habanera) - but also unexpected rhythmic shifts, misplaced accents and percussive, stacatto tempos (Bourree fantasque, Mauresque). Also present are Wagnerian chromaticism and Chabrierian ninth chords. While his music is unpredictable, his melodies and themes are most memorable and entirely French in their essence. Structurally, things are not so German here with themes appearing and disappearing without formal development (forshadowing Debussy). Chabrier's music has its own internal logic that takes time to appreciate perhaps. And to the classically trained pianist, his figurations can be quite awkward and fast changing, making his music a notable challenge to play.
Canadian-born pianist, Angela Hewitt seems to be developing quite an affinity for French keyboard music as she now turns her talents to yet another French composer. The main event of Hewitt's program is the delightfully different, "Dix Pieces Pittoreques" (1881) - ten Schumann-like miniatures of emmense variety of expression and pianistic techniques. Rounding out the program are many equally interesting pieces: a wonderous Impromptu, the encore showpiece Bourree Fantasque, the celebrated "Habanera" and other worthwhile "fillers." For those more familiar with Hewitt's other, "more readily accessible" recordings, her foray into the harmonically obscure, delightfully frivolous and somewhat unpredictable world of Chabrier's music will be quite a change. But, thankfully, for those new to this music, the 5-pages of insightful commentary can assist the discovery and appreciation of this most original of composers.
In the delightful miniatures, Dix Pieces Pittoresque, Angela Hewitt captures their varying moods and fleeting, evocative effects with great spunk and a mocking parlor charm that highlights their novelty. Then in the more dynamic, extraverted pieces (Scherzo-valse, Danse villageoise, Menuet pompeux and Bourree fantasque), Hewitt's rock-solid rhythms and crystaline clarity cause these piece to sparkle and strut like the Parisian nightlife that inspired them. Her Scherzo-valse finds a marvelous bouyancy and joie-de-vivre exuberance. The closing Bourree is a star of the program that Hewitt plays with a steel-sprung stacatto and dramatic flair. (The entire track can be heard on the Hyperion-Records web-site).
In the less extroverted pieces - like the Faure-like "Improvisation" (track 10) - Hewitt creates a dreamy, delicate passion not unlike that found in her equisitely textured Chopin Nocturnes. And not all of Chabrier's music is unusual and novel. In his more uncomplicated, lyrical pieces - like Habanera, Feuillet, Melancolie or Idylle - Miss Hewitt shows her usual master-of-the-tender-melody pianism that endears her to many fans. However, to me her more shy and innocent Idylle is not quite as irresistable as fellow-Canadian Naida Cole's version (Decca) - whose more perky legato and playful tempo gives an added measure of Chabrier's frivolous charm.
Hewitt and the Hyperion producers selected a chararistic venue for this recording: the parlor of a grand hotel - perhaps wanting to recreate the ambiance and nostalgia of a French cabaret bar like the Folies Bergere that Chabrier frequented (cover photo). In this environment, the sound from her Fazioli Concert Grand is big, bright, and richly colored - but in a somewhat overly spacious ambiance. Some will have prefered less acoustic reflection in the recording, but such an acoustic (and her Fazioli) has its advantages in big-boomy pieces like "Mauresque" or especially in the "Minuet pompeux" (track 11) in which Hewitt's octave-doubling takes on a breathtaking symphonic character.
There is a marveous little story of Fazioli pianos in the charming little memoir, "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" that is reminscent of the sound on this disc. Here, the author listens in amazement as Paulo Fazioli plays a concert grand at his factory in Italy: "The volume was phenomenal and yet the clarity of tone was in no way compromised. In the highly chromatic passages (of the C# major Chopin Polanaise), the shimmering tones hung in the air for what seemed an eternity, as he added layer-upon-layer of resonance without it ever becoming indistinct or muddy."
I really did not expect to like this music as much as I did, but I found it exceptionally different and emmensely appealing. If you listen to the details, there is a fascinating musical world to be discovered. Kudos to Hewitt for presenting this novel music with such pizzaz, allure and approachability. Additionally, this CD got a "Critic's Choice" nod from Gramophone and some solid reviews from ClassicToday (9/10) and BBC Music (4/5 stars), barring some slight dislike of the more spacious recording. As there are only a small number of substantial recordings of Chabrier's piano music (Alain Planes or Kathryn Stott), this Hyperion recording is a most welcome addition and one of Hewitt's best. Along with her complete Bach keyboard works and complete Ravel piano music, this CD is part of why Hewitt won the prestigious "2006 Gramophone Artist of Year Award." Running time - 76 minutes. Compositions - 5 stars; Performance - 5 stars; Sound quality - 4.5 stars."
FRIEND OF THE GREAT
DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 12/29/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's pleasant to hear something by Chabrier other than Espana. His piano music has real charm and quality, besides being interesting in its historical context. He was an exact contemporary of Dvorak although predeceasing him by 10 years, and that makes him just a few years older than Faure. He was hugely impressed with Wagner, but from the retrospective of 2006 I can't find his harmony particularly advanced or radical for its time, with nothing approaching Faure's originality or subtlety. I hear it as music in a distinctively French tradition, harking back in some ways to Couperin and Rameau (as Franck noted at the time). The Ten Picturesque Pieces are given slightly elusive and teasing titles in much the way Couperin used to do, a practice carried on by Debussy and taken to satirical lengths by Satie, although Ravel was guiltless in the matter. Angela Hewitt plays them within the sequence of their publication, preceded by two other pieces and followed by another half-dozen. How closely this order reflects the works' order of composition I'm not completely clear, but I doubt it matters much. The style throughout is all much the same, and any departures from the general idiom seem to me individual one-off fancies rather than suggestive of any trend.
Angela Hewitt is an artist I am always pleased to hear in any music at all. I know her work best from Bach, but I have heard her in Chopin, I see she has recorded the complete piano works of Ravel, and now here she is in Chabrier. Insofar as I have got a coherent picture of her, she seems to me to offer a distinctively feminine perspective. Her playing is not in the least pale and maidenly, but I hear her as in the tradition of, say, Guiomar Novaes and Moura Lympany -- the playing full of fire and commitment as well as being technically superb, but not taking on the men on their own terms as Gina Bachauer, Cecile Ousset and Martha Argerich might be thought to do. Everything she does is civilised, thoughtful and sensitive, and I found the comparison of this disc with a recent set of Albeniz by her compatriot Hamelin to be fascinating. Hewitt doesn't disdain the sustaining pedal nor reserve it for special effects. It is always there as part of the general sound, although I hardly need say never overdone. Her tone is not small and she packs plenty of power when she needs it, but the roof is never in danger of being dislodged and her fortissimo is always euphonious. The quality of her fingerwork always ensures clarity, but there is always also warmth to the sound except when that is just not a possibility, as at the start of the Danse villageoise. This is an intellectual player too, as anyone will know who has read her fine commentary on the Bach 48, and her tempi, tone-contrasts and grasp of the music's idiom are a lesson in how it can all be done.
The piano is a Fazioli, and the recording was done in Italy over 3 days in 2004. The sound therefore demands to be judged by the most severe modern standards, and to me it seems perfectly satisfactory without being exactly outstanding. The liner-note is by Hewitt's own teacher Jean-Paul Sevilla with translations into English and German. The English version by Ronald Smithers strikes me as very good in general, although what on earth might a `bounding piece' (`bondissante') be? Try `sprightly'. Sevilla's text makes a bit of a meal out of the commentary on these pieces, I thought, but it is always interesting and illuminating, and I was particularly grateful for the material on the composer himself. A beautiful production altogether, music that deserves to be better known played by an artist always worth knowing better too, and the set graced by a particularly gorgeous Manet as its frontispiece. Chabrier was on friendly terms with Manet, Monet, Sisley, Cezanne and Renoir, I gather, as well as Duparc and Faure, and of course his work was admired by Franck. He is not the greatest among such company, but he is not unworthy of it either."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1