Orchestral music played a key role in the output of César Franck throughout his career. He accorded an important and innovative place to the symphonic poem, a new genre of the Romantic era: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne actually dates from 1846, two years before Franz Liszt’s composition of the same name! As a virtuoso pianist himself, Franck also produced a number of concertante works, from early pieces written for his own performance – a few brilliant sets of variations and a youthful concerto – to the famous Symphonic Variations (1885). The Symphony in D minor of 1887 was one of the cornerstones of the renewal of the genre in France, coming between Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony (1886) and Chausson’s Symphony (1899). The Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège presents here the first genuinely complete survey of this orchestral and concertante repertory, assembling recordings from recent years and some new productions.

REVIEW:

The year 2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck. His orchestral music is not so often heard these days, so this comprehensive collection of performances from his home-town orchestra is quite timely. It would, however, have proved very welcome at any date for the Liège players not only play very well but also deliver the scores idiomatically and with real conviction. This box set usefully and enjoyably reminds us that there is plenty of pleasurable listening to be explored beyond the D minor symphony.

-- MusicWeb International

Violinist Sylvia Huang, a prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2019, and Éliane Reyes, the renowned virtuoso pianist, present a new disc bubbling with elegance and femininity. Linked by a keen musical rapport and an irrepressible friendship, they declare their love for Belgian Romantic music, embodied by two emblematic composers: Eugène Ysaÿe, a natural musical companion whom every violinist has encountered or dreamt about, and Guillaume Lekeu, a dazzling musical genius taken from us all too soon. This recording reveals some skillfully chosen gems by Ysaÿe, including two unpublished early pieces, the Mazurka de concert and the Grande Valse de concert (the latter a world premiere). Lekeu is represented by the sublime Sonata for piano and violin, dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe; the musicians had the opportunity to consult, with an almost fervent enthusiasm, the original manuscript in Verviers, the birthplace of both the composer and Éliane Reyes. A radiant album, overwhelming in its sincerity.

Daniel Weissmann, Managing Director of the Liège Royal Philharmonic, is also a violist. Following an initial album released by Fuga Libera (2018) and chiefly devoted to German music, he continues his exploration of the chamber repertory for viola with this new album, here in partnership with the pianist Peter Petrov. The programme explores the French Romantic repertory, in a world premiere recording of the British musicologist Hugh Macdonald’s remarkable and formidably difficult arrangement for viola and piano of Berlioz’s Harold en Italie. The album is completed by ‘fin-de-siecle’ pieces by Vierne, Chausson and Tournemire (all three students of Cesar Franck), written between 1894 and 1897, which embrace the full expressive and melancholic potential of the instrument.

Hirundo Maris has constantly explored new musical worlds and forms of expression since it was founded in 2009 under the direction of Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen. They are now taking a completely different path with this new project for the label Fuga Libera, which is devoted to a great and wonderful song tradition, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century art song, featuring composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Fauré, Debussy, Mompou, Toldrà, García Lorca, de Falla and Grieg – all of whom were so significant for this chamber music genre. "The love of poetry and music that we (Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen) share is something that we invariably explore in all our projects with Hirundo Maris. It was very important for us to do this in our own personal way, and to bring to the music our own personal sound and love. That is why we arranged all of the music anew so that it would integrate with the musical universe of Hirundo Maris. You will hear a great love and respect for this music made by these fantastic composers in the spirit of Hirundo Maris, with music coming from the sunny Mediterranean and reaching to frosty Scandinavia."

Richard Wagner and Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky: these two composers seem to represent two musical extremes on this one album, with their only connection being the orchestra and the conductor who here perform their works. Wagner had proclaimed himself as the savior of German Romantic music, the master who would raise opera and its performance to a higher level; Tchaikovsky was a tormented Russian Romantic composer who was considered to be too focused on Italian music to be truly Russian and yet whose music was regarded as being too Russian to ever sound truly European. Wagner’s “Vorspiel und Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony in f minor No. 4, op. 36 are presented here together by the Philharmonie Zuidnederland conducted by Dmitri Liss.

Growing up in two very different and, at times, conflicting cultures, music has always been the bridge that connects the different phases and places of my life. In this debut album, I wanted to capture my journey as a person and a musician. Arirang is a well-known Korean folk song in which the lyrics portray the pain and yearning of a lost love. Baek took this simple tune and turned it into a virtuosic and melismatic saga of self-discovery. Young Barber’s expressive and hopeful voice in his Cello Sonata captures the spirit of the American Dream, the wide-eyed optimism that anything is possible. Written only about a decade later, I relate the rhythmic complexity of Carter’s Sonata to another intersection on my continuing yet irregular journey. The fluidity of time, bursts of energy, and rhythmic liveliness are some of the most apparent characteristics of this piece. Finally, Henry and I chose to record the rarely heard Ysaÿe’s Meditation and Jacques Brel songs to express our gratitude to Belgium. We have both experienced such warmth and support there, and it is the place where our collaboration started. I hope this album is emblematic of bridging different cultures and journeys together.

The Trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola combines the sounds of the human voice, piano and viola da gamba with electronic effects and medieval harp. The players have diverse backgrounds in early music, jazz, Finnish folk music and contemporary music, although it was medieval music that was the inspiration for their highly personal and recognizable sound. The group continues to explore the chants of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Pérotin (1160-1230) and 14th-century pilgrimage songs. Echoes from monasteries, cathedrals and pilgrimage sites are combined with delicate improvisations and original compositions; they create links between the eras and centuries as they invite the listener on a journey towards peace and tranquility. The trio is fascinated by how time is perceived and how these beautiful medieval melodies and texts speak to us now, by the idea of now — the moment they were written down in the medieval manuscripts — and how the power of now shapes their improvisations and compositions hundreds of years later.

Exchanging roles between soloist and Konzertmeisterin, the accomplished young violinist Saténik Khourdoïan here makes her recording debut in an exciting programme with La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and its acclaimed Music Director Alain Altinoglu. Perhaps best known to the general public for his ballet Swan Lake, the ardently Romantic composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is also much admired for his concertante works. His Violin Concerto, considered one of the most virtuosic and one of the most frequently performed around the world, was written at a time when he was head-over- heels in love with one of his students, Iosif Kotek, to whom he originally wanted to dedicate the work. The ballet Swan Lake features some of the finest pieces ever written for the violin, some of which have been selected for this album. As an encore after these two major works, the conductor swaps his baton for the piano and joins his soloist in the nostalgic dream of the Valse Sentimentale.

If you enjoy full-blooded Rachmaninoff, here’s an enterprising young pianist to hear with joy now, and watch carefully in the future.

One harrowingly difficult set of variations by Rachmaninoff and a variety of his best-known transcriptions: this is not debut material for the pianistically faint-of-heart. But then, Ekaterina Mechetina is anything but faint-hearted. This collection was shrewdly chosen to emphasize some of her more spectacular qualities, and in general, it succeeds well.

Mechetina is an aggressive player and a superb technician, facts that immediately become apparent in the Corelli Variations. She plays with complete mastery of the music at any tempo, and seems especially to relish the challenge of the faster, more complex variations—such as the furious seventh, marked vivace, with its giant bell in the bass never obscuring the theme and avalanche of figurations riding above it, or the quicksilver 10th variation, with its extremely clean and even articulation. The late Romantic rhetoric of the fourth and 15th variations find her warm and committed, with a natural rubato and long-breathed phrasing. Similarly, she doesn’t lose her way in the freer passages of the 14th, cimbalom-like variation; while the arpeggiated runs that twice erupt during its length coruscate. The way the pianist plays the opening theme demonstrates yet another useful virtue, all too rare these days: the ability to perform slowly, solemnly, without any trace of nerves or need to push ahead.

Many of the same features are shown elsewhere on this release. The Bach selections are bright and cleanly articulated, with an assertive attack that the pianist softens well. Not that this is soft playing, however, but vibrant, angular, and often rich, in keeping with the personal and deliberately non-authentic nature of these piano transcriptions. I did find a couple of passages in the Gavotte hard in tone, however. It points to the one fault in Mechetina’s rendition of this music: a certain want of color. She’s certainly not steely-fingered on this recording, but tends to deploy the panoply of techniques used to control this aspect of pianism (dynamics, fingering, pedaling, etc) far more discreetly than she does the others. As a result, the Mendelssohn and Rimsky-Korsakov lack gossamer, though they have all the point, clarity, and accuracy at caffeinated tempos one could desire. Her versions of Lilacs and the Cradle Song are persuasively lyrical, but the two Kreisler numbers are just a bit too prosaic despite their virtuosity to be completely convincing.

As for Mechetina herself, she was a student of Vladimir Ovchinnikov at the Moscow State Conservatory until 2001. (You may remember Ovchinnikov as tying in 1982 with Peter Donahue for second prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, with no first prize awarded.) Since then, she’s done postgraduate work with Sergei Dorensky, has toured extensively, and won high honors in several competitions—most notably, first place at the modestly titled 2004 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. She’s clearly being groomed as star material, and on the evidence of this album, well on her way to achieving this.

The liner notes are a mixture of obsequious swooning and translation babble. (“A brief but already rich in events artistic way of Ekaterina Mechetina strikes one not only by the swift impetuosity of her upward flight to the musical Olympus but also by gradual but invariably steadfast and consistent advance to the summits of musical mastery.”) Sound is very good, however, with relatively close placement to the microphone, a brightness to the top, and richness to the lower registers.

With all she has going for her, the only major surprise on this release is that Mechetina’s debut has been provided courtesy of Fuga Libera rather than a more established label; and with funding furnished (we are told repeatedly throughout the liner notes and on the jewel box) by Netexis Asset Management, part of the French Banque Populaire Group. Was nobody at EMI, Warner Classics, cpo, or any of the other major labels willing to take a chance on someone of this caliber? I suppose not. In any case, if you enjoy full-blooded Rachmaninoff, here’s an enterprising young pianist to hear with joy now, and watch carefully in the future.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Founded nearly eighty years ago, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne enjoys an enviable reputation and has welcomed the greatest artists as its guests, from Clara Haskil and Alfred Cortot to Murray Perahia and Martha Argerich, from Paul Hindemith to Günter Wand. Despite its long history, the orchestra has had only six musical directors, including Armin Jordan from 1973 to 1985. The young American conductor Joshua Weilerstein succeeded Christian Zacharias in 2015. In addition to his conducting skills and his interest in rare repertory, he has also brought a love of musical outreach. His very popular podcast, ‘Sticky Notes’, discusses music in an accessible way. This recording is devoted to Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphonies opp.73a and 83a, which are Rudolf Barshai’s arrangements of the String Quartets nos. 3 and 4. Barshai, one of the leading violists of his time, was a friend of Shostakovich and their collaboration was long and intensive. The chamber orchestra arrangements of these famous quartets offer a completely different perspective on the original works and were praised by Shostakovich himself, who reportedly said of one of them that it ‘sounded better than the original’. As a complement to the two works, Joshua Weilerstein shares his interpretation in a bonus spoken word track.

Sjaella is the vocal ensemble of the moment to discover! Six talented and effervescent female singers who are not afraid of anything and demonstrate as much in a program entitled Origins, ranging from seventieth-century repertory to contemporary pieces. Out of the ether, into existence. The initial point. The beginning. The ever-recurring origin. Between minimalism and picturesque arias arise light, time, and all life. In Origins, the female vocal ensemble Sjaella focuses on natural cycles that have surrounded us since the dawn of time. In every era, people have experienced the changes in the seasons, the gentle rhythm of day and night, the individual flow of the body, and the transience of rebirth. All of these themes are presented as a unit, which forms a cycle of key concepts from the origin of life to a post-apocalyptic vacuum. The music contrasts and combines new arrangements of English songs of the seventeenth century, some of them from Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, with contemporary pieces, including those in the American Minimalist style, such as David Lang’s Evening, Morning, Day. By including mainly commissioned works, the album shows Sjaella’s close collaboration with renowned international composers such as Paola Prestini, singer-songwriter Shara Nova and former King’s Singers member Philip Lawson.

Piazzolla intentionally allowed a great deal of interpretative freedom in the Concierto para bandoneón and the Doble concierto - Hommage à Liège, encouraging the performer to be ever more creative; he himself stated that his concertos revived the tradition of the so-called tango a la parrilla of the 1940s, in which improvisation played a considerable role. This disc offers a new reading of Piazzolla's work, in which the codes and the richness of traditional tango reinforce the strength of his music. William Sabatier, accompanied by the Dijon Bourgogne Orchestra under Leonardo Garcia Alarcón, here presents two highly representative works by Piazzolla that also established the bandoneon as a solo instrument.

The Trio Zadig marks this Saint-Saëns anniversary year by presenting him not only as a composer but also as a transcriber of other composers’ works. Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concerts 1 and 5, together with Liszt’s Orpheus, both arranged by Saint-Saëns for piano trio, frame his own op. 92. This programme gives the listener the impression of travelling through both time and space, in the 18th and 20th centuries, in Hungary and in France. The Zadig trio remain true to their quest for unusual and unfamiliar repertoire; following the example of Voltaire’s hero, they continue their adventures in the world of chamber music.

The Turkish-Belgian pianist Isil Bengi is an insatiable artist who has developed a unique personality, thanks especially to her curiosity about the rich diversity of cultures, her keen interest in the different styles and techniques of the piano, and her extreme sensitivity. Here she presents an original and colorful programme, in which intimacy and virtuosity, gentleness and violence, joy and rage are heard as expressions of the memory of the peoples who form part of her family history. The modernity of the works is characterized by a very natural and organic aspect, often nourished by the musical folklore of the countries of origin of the respective composers. Rhythm is a particularly prominent feature, highlighted in most of the pieces, notably through the use of irregular meters and polyrhythm.

This is really an event in the world of recordings. Producing all of Vieuxtemps' seven violin concertos is quite an undertaking. Too much for a single person? It may be. For Augustin Dumay, master teacher-in-residence at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, however, this was the opportunity to pay tribute to the vitality of the Franco-Belgian school, the substance of which he learnt through his master Arthur Grumiaux. The task was taken up by seven young virtuosos he has taught, several of whom have already distinguished themselves in major international competitions. This is the result, impressive by its commitment and mastery, registered in the beautiful hall of the Liège Philharmonic, where the orchestra plays Vieuxtemps « in its own backyard » under the expert baton of Patrick Davin. This attractive box of 3 CDs is also the opportunity to retrace Vieuxtemps' extraordinary career, often reduced to mere virtuosity when in fact he pursued a search for expression and content all his life. This is a hymn to the violin, to belcanto, panache, romanticism, transcending virtuosity and youth we find here, in this fourth volume in the collection « Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth », under the label Fuga Libera. It follows in a beautiful series of titles which met with the enthusiasm of many listeners: Plamena Mangova (FUG517), Milos Popovic (FUG529) and Trio Dali (FUG547).