With this programme of music for cello and piano, Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih transport us to the world immortalized in Marcel Proust’s a la recherche du temps perdu – the Parisian high society and its glittering salons. For the composers of the time these provided a perfect platform for the introduction of new works, performed by the finest musicians in France for a sympathetic, educated and rich (!) audience. And for the music-loving Proust they offered countless opportunities to meet the composers that he so admired (and others that he may have admired a bit less…) The first of these to make his appearance in the programme is no one less than Proust’s one-time lover and lifelong friend, Reynaldo Hahn, with a brief set of Variations chantantes on a theme from a baroque opera. He is followed by Gabriel Faure, whose music Proust gushed about in a letter to the composer: ‘I could write a book more than 300 pages long about it.’

Proust was less expansive about Saint-Saëns’ music even if he admired him as a pianist, but the composer’s First Cello Sonata is nevertheless the centrepiece of the programme, before Henri Duparc and Augusta Holmes make their appearance. These were both students of Cesar Franck, whose iconic Violin Sonata in A major (here in the version for cello) closes this programme of ‘salon music’ – in the best possible sense of the term.

REVIEW:

The writings of Marcel Proust are suffused with music. Proust depicted the world of the Parisian salons of the late 19th century, where both music and literature flourished. This release by cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih does not depict a specific event, but it does plunge the listener into Proust's world. Isserlis brings the necessary heat to the Franck sonata, an arrangement of the composer's cello sonata that the composer himself sanctioned. Another draw is Shih's accompaniment work, distinctive and appropriately intense. For lovers of French music, this is a standout release.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

Elena Urioste and Tom Poster return for their second recital on Chandos, focussing on French repertoire. The performers write: ‘The three sonatas on this album were all published during the decade 1916–26, a musical period to which we often find ourselves drawn, when the world – and the artistic landscape – was changing beyond recognition.'

'Fauré lamented that his Second Sonata never achieved anything like the popularity of his First; having fallen under the Second Sonata’s spell, we wanted to help to right this continuing imbalance.'

'Mel Bonis wrote more than 300 pieces, and all those we have explored so far have been wonderful. Her only violin sonata is a rhapsodic work with a Greek folk melody at its heart, which we were enraptured by the moment we encountered it.'

'Reynaldo Hahn is generally better known to singers than to instrumentalists, though his chamber music is as exquisite as his songs. His Violin Sonata was the last work on this album to be composed, but where Fauré in his Sonata looks forward to modernist developments, Hahn mostly looks back nostalgically to a gentler time.'

'The earliest of the works here, and possibly the most often heard these days, is the Nocturne by Lili Boulanger, an exquisite miniature from a composer whose life ended far too soon.’

Sophie Dervaux’s debut album on Berlin Classics is very much in the French tradition. Together with her French colleague, pianist Sélim Mazari, the bassoonist presents works on this concept album Impressions that are by composers of various eras, including Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Fauré and Koechlin. The bassoon – unusually – takes the stage as a soloist and so fulfils the purpose that the Vienna Phil bassoonist had in mind: to present the unique singing sound of the instrument and enrich the world of the bassoon in the process. “A lot of people think of the bassoon as an amusing instrument. But it can be more than just the jolly clown. I wanted to show that it can sound wonderful and sing wonderfully too.” There is no doubt that Dervaux has proved her point on Impressions. Her repertoire brings together familiar and seldom heard pieces, and at times ushers its audience into a dream world. Among those pieces are Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Beau Soir, illustrating the tonal compass of the bassoon. Sophie Dervaux also presents the Sonata for bassoon and piano in G major, op. 168, written by Camille Saint-Saëns, in his old age. Great phrases and lines flow from Dervaux’s instrument in Fauré’s Après un rêve, and a piece she arranged herself, Pièce en forme d’habanera by Ravel, brings out the almost human voice of the instrument. These Impressionists are joined by theorist and composer Charles Koechlin with his Sonata, op.71. Going a step further, Reynaldo Hahn’s A Cloris and Roger Boutry’s Interferénces bridge the gap between old and new and introduce jazz influences. With her new album Impressions, Sophie Dervaux aims to show her audience what is special about the bassoon: its sound, and its virtuosity too.

How about a trip back to the Annees Folles in the company of Sacha Guitry? With this musical comedy composed by Reynaldo Hahn, which was a triumph for Arletty, the Palazzetto Bru Zane reveals the hectic adventures of the hatter Prosper Aubertin. He dreams of extramarital adventures, but among the replies to the classified ad he places, how surprised he is to discover letters from his wife, his daughter and his maid! The piece was Guitry’s second collaboration with Hahn. ‘What [else] do you need to be happy?’ as the chambermaid asks in Act Three? Veronique Gens bubbling with mischief, and the Orchestre National d’Avignon dynamised by the conducting of Samuel Jean.

Gary Lemco writes: “My own beguilement with Szeryng came with his performance in 1987 Atlanta with Louis Lane, of the North American premiere of the 1927 Concerto by Reynaldo Hahn, the French master of the Belle Epoch. “Ah, yes”, asserts Szeryng, “Reynaldo Hahn, the most Parisian of all Parisians, even though he was born in Caracas of German parents. There is even a street in Caracas named for him. I remember meeting him; and even though he was trained as a pianist, he had a natural sense of the violin. Some favor his Violin Sonata. The Concerto is published, but for some reason nobody plays it. The first movement for me is the best and most compact and makes a natural display piece. The second movement is based on a song from Tunis — absolutely genuine— and the finale sings in a typical operetta style. It starts like an extension of the second movement and has tremendous wit and charm. And, to be sure, it is a challenge.”

REVIEW:

Szeryng was a class act. His tone pure yet full-bodied, his phrasing the product of a rounded and cultivated mind.

-- Gramophone (Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month, December 2021)

This CD recording is the result of a succession of different moments of musical happiness and the encounter between the solo harpist of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Aurelie Noll, and two exceptional musicians. María Cristina Kiehr and Yolena Orea-Sanchez (violoncello) have put their talent and artistic sensitivity at the service of this wonderful repertoire. The special sound of the harp creates a kind of new relief here and lends this unusual album its special charm. The program includes works by Reynaldo Hahn, Tchaikovsky, Manuel de Falla and Gabriel Faure. One highlight is certainly the new composition for soprano, cello and harp by Swiss composer Silvan Loher, whose delicate and impressionistic musical style fits wonderfully into this project. Soprano María Cristina Kiehr, born in Tandil, Argentina, is a specialist in "early music". The South American cellist Yolena Orea-Sanchez is a permanent member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, as is the harpist Noll. She can be heard regularly at numerous European music festivals with the Trio Anthilia (violin, cello and piano), which she co-founded.

In this recital, Véronique Gens and Hervé Niquet bring back to life a neglected aspect of France’s Romantic heritage: songs with orchestral accompaniment. Aside from a few pieces by Debussy and Duparc, and Berlioz’s famous Nuits d’été, orchestral mélodies form a virtually forgotten continent. In collaboration with the specialists of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, Alpha now revisits these musical landscapes, taking us from Brittany (Hahn) to Persia, whose beauties Fauré and Saint-Saëns exalt in very different ways. Mélodies by Chausson, Gounod and Dubois and rarely heard instrumental pieces by Massenet, Fauré and Fernand de La Tombelle round out the journey with their musical reveries.