Here is an invaluable addition to APR's already richly inclusive French School of pianism. This includes the first recording of Ravel's.
Left Hand Piano Concerto with Jacques Fevrier, Ravel's chosen soloist. Never less than testy and demanding where his own music was concerned Ravel felt that from Fevrier the Concerto would be in safe hands, played 'the way it was written' and free of the alterations made by Paul Wittgenstein and Cortot's version for two hands. Yet even if this disc is of special documentary interest it is difficult to consider it in the same light as later celebrated recordings by Robert Casadesus, Leon Fleisher, Krystian Zimerman and Samson Francois(to name but four). Admirers of heroic pianism will also search out a 1953 recording by Emil Gilels. With Fevrier there are moments of strain in what was clearly a daunting occasion, though the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra under Charles Munch are more than up to the mark, fully equal to an opening once aptly described as being like 'the scrapings of a witch's cauldron.' In the G major Concerto Emile Passani's burst of vitality in the final pages comes too late to rescue a sadly indifferent response to Ravel's 'joie de vivre.
And for 'joie de vivre' you will not need to look further than the two star performances in this issue. Jeanne- Marie Darre, in a 1948 recording of Saint-Saens Second Concerto made before her celebrated later discs of all five Concertos, and Alfred Cortot in the Fourth Concerto. Darre(affectionately known as Madame Saint-Saens after she had played the Five Concertos in a single concert to celebrate her birthday) epitomizes the Marguerite Loong school of 'jeu perle' in one sense, but transcends it at another. Her performance is as powerful as it is scintillating, clipped, racy and with an effervescence all her own; everything sparks and glitters above a lightly pedalled foundation.
Then there is Cortot. The Fourth Concerto was always a favourite in his immense repertoire, usually paired in concert with the Faure Ballade. You hear that unmistakable eloquence in his first entry and, throughout, there is all of that light and shade, that tonal chiaroscuro that were his alone to command. The music lives and breathes in a way known to no other pianist and if the fingers are occasionally unwilling the spirit burns, flame-like throughout.
The other notable item comes from Jean Doyen in the Faure Fantasie where the composer leaves the luxuriance and romantic intricacy of the earlier Ballade for a relatively spare and gaunt manner, already a mirror of the challenging circumstances that beset his later life. Rarely performed(Alfred Cortot to whom it was dedicated and who gave the first performance was disappointed) it is given by Jean Doyen with a special empathy and clarity in what is again, a valuable first recording.
Elsewhere there is an oddly prosaic performance of Saint-Saen's so-called 'Egyptian' Concerto by Kazuuku Kusma and you only have to turn to Jeanne-Marie Darre and most of all to Fabienne Jacquinot to hear performances more brilliantly in tune with its exotic life.
For playing at the opposite pole, delectably light-hearted and free, there is Jean Francaix in his Concertino and Concerto, both ultra-French romps alive with mischievous changes of direction and off-beat accentuation. There is an atmospheric Piano Concerto(No 1 in A minor) by Henri Sauget(1901-1989) played by Arnaut de Gontaud-Biron and, more significantly, Poulenc's 'Aubade' performed by the composer, and where high jinks are never far below the surface of 'tendresse.'
Overall, this 2-disc album offers a vital insight into the French School. There is a striking and unfamiliar photograph of Jeann-Marie Darre and detailed notes outlining the always intense, feverish activities of Parisienne musical life.
Bryce Morrison