Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Faure Bacarolles are unique and wonderful works for piano. Pianist Namji Kim plays these works with exquisite sensitivity and warmth. Dr. Namji Kim graduated from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris with First Prizes (Premiers Prix) in piano, chamber music, and harmony. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her doctoral thesis was a study of prosody in French Operas. A finalist at the Kahn International Piano Competition in Paris and at the Chopin International Competition in Majorca, Ms. Kim's concert schedule has included performances around North America, Europe, Russia, and Korea, where in addition to her recitals she appeared on television and radio broadcasts. Also an active accompanist, Ms. Kim has accompanied singers in the master classes of Ned Rorem and Louise Talma as well as accompanying for the vocal studios of Gabor Carelli, Paul Sperry, Cynthia Hoffmann, and Gary Kendall. Her chamber music activities include performances within various string ensembles and duos with wind and brass instruments notably performances with cellist Paul Kosower, clarinetist Robert Spring, and trumpeter Thomas Pfotenhauer. In addition to her performing, she has published several review essays relating to the interrelationships among philosophy, theology, and music in the Boston College Journal, "Religion and the Arts." Namji Kim is an active pedagogue in chamber music, piano, and music theory.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Fauré: Pavane, Songs & Requiem

Although a great specialist of 17th and 18th century repertories, the tenor Thibaut Lenaerts has chosen for his first solo album to plunge into the world of Gabriel Faur�'s songs, accompanied by Philippe Riga and the soft, warm tones of a magnificent 1873 Erard piano. An alchemy of colors that promises a superb recital, imbued with a sense of irresistible nostalgia for both performer and listener. Thibaut Lenaerts studied singing at the Royal Conservatory of Liege with Greta de Reyghere, where he won first prize for singing. He subsequently won first prize for chamber music in the class of Guy Van Waas as well as first prize for opera singing with Thierry Migliorini at the Royal Conservatory of Mons. He divides his life between Brussels and Paris, where he appears as a soloist with numerous ensembles.

Both accomplished soloists with impressive international careers, violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel began their successful collaboration in 2006. The duo devotes themselves to the discovery and performance of uncommon repertoire. The music of French composer Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) is marked by lyrical lines and flowing harmonies. His elegant music is transparent and virtuosic. These two pieces were written more than four decades apart, and show turning points in the composer’s artistic life. The first sonata was the composer’s breakthrough hit. The success of this work unleashed an interest in his pieces across France. The second sonata is the first piece from the composer’s final period, when he wrote primarily chamber music.

Award Winner - Choc de l'Année 2012! In a genre set by Boccherini and represented in the nineteenth century by the masterpieces of Schumann, Brahms and Franck, Gabriel Fauré composed two scores that were very different from his early romances and the evanescent 'lullaby of death' that is the Requiem. The Piano Quintet op. 89 remains little known, for reasons related to its composition as much as to its history. Regarded by Koechlin as one of Fauré's finest work, it serves as a transition to the composer's final stylistic period. Opus 115, surprisingly less melancholy than its predecessor, is one of the composer's last productions. In the evening of his life Faure demonstrated his supreme mastery and prodigious creative power, giving French chamber music, which he served so well, one of its finest monuments.

FAURÉ Dolly for Piano Four-Hands. Masques et bergamasques for Piano Four-Hands. Fantaisie for Flute and Piano, op. 79. Morceau de concours for Flute and Piano. Piano Trio, op. 120. Aprés un rêve for Cello and Piano (trans. Casals). Pelléas et Mélisande: Sicilienne, for cello & piano. FAURÉ-MESSAGER Souvenirs de Bayreuth for Piano Four-Hands • Eric Le Sage (pn); Alexandre Tharaud (pn); Emmanuel Pahud (fl); Pierre Colombet (vn); Raphaël Merlin (vc); Françoise Salque (vc) • ALPHA 603 (70:32)


This comes wrapped in a certain air of carelessness. It might be called Eric Le Sage and Friends , and one assumes that Le Sage is the principal pianist, but there is no attempt to identify who plays what, on the jacket or in the booklet. Likewise, there is a reluctance to credit the arrangers and collaborators of several items, e.g., the contribution of André Meassager to the Souvenirs de Bayreuth ; some of which are taken at breakneck speed, thus obscuring their allusions to the Wagner operas they’re guying. In other pieces, however, gung-ho spontaneity is salutary. Going for the gusto, finesse occasionally takes a hit. Nestled amid the bonbons, a movingly elegiac reading of Fauré’s late Trio, too often dismissed as a feebly geriatric effort, makes a superb case for it and prompts one to hear Le Sage & Company’s three other Fauré albums. Despite occasional reservations, this gives pleasure. Recommended.


FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis