Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a highly successful female pianist and composer. As a pianist she toured the European countries, in 1892 making her debut in England, making acquaintance with one of her biggest fans, Queen Victoria. In 1908 she made her American debut, gaining instant and immense popularity. The reason for Chaminade’s popularity is the charm, tunefulness and general accessibility of her music. It touches a ready chord with every music lover, and the fancy titles and not overly virtuosic piano writing made that her works became drawing room favorites of the epoch.

For his second Chaminade album British pianist Mark Viner chose the Six Concert Studies, substantial and demanding works, Six Pièces humoristiques Op. 87, and some engaging and attractive character pieces: L’Ondine, Danse Créole and the favorite Lolita, Caprice Espagnol, all played with Viner’s unerring feeling for the witty and charming style, pouring out sentiment without being sentimental. Gramophone wrote about Viner’s first Chaminade album: “This new survey must count among the finest yet, showing the range and ambition of Chaminade in short works, played with an innate charm and understanding of the genre. In addition, it is most beautifully recorded. Mark Viner is recognized as one of the foremost British pianists, a strong advocate of lesser-known romantic piano music. One of his most ambitious and successful enterprises is the recording of the complete piano music by Charles-Valentin Alkan, now at volume 5, several of which issues received the highest praise in the press (5 star review, Gramophone Editor’s Choice).

REVIEW:

Cécile Chaminade’s well crafted, idiomatic, communicative, and utterly charming solo piano works are more and more finding their way to disc. I’m not certain if Mark Viner’s second Piano Classics release devoted to this composer signifies a complete cycle in the works, yet his robust virtuosity and overall dynamism vibrantly elevate this repertoire from the salon to the stage.

L’Ondine’s pearly runs, for example, tellingly contrast to the full-bodied chordal climaxes, while Viner makes more of Au pays dévasté’s brooding countenance than others. He brings a probing deliberation and almost tragic spin to the familiar Autrefois from the 6 Pièces humoristiques Op. 87 in a reading that radically differs from Joanne Polk’s fleeting, cameo-like treatment. Viner’s quickly flickering left-hand arpeggios in Guitare lilt in a manner that evokes Chaminade’s piano roll interpretation. If Polk’s Etude romantique Op. 132 is crisper and more incisively articulated than Viner’s, his Etude symphonique Op. 28 conveys greater textural depth, while the Etude scholastique Op. 139’s tarantella-like figurations effortlessly click their heels. Viner’s detailed and insightful annotations flesh out this most welcome release.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)