Autumn Listening: Simon Mundy on the Month’s Best New Classical CDs

Poulenc plays Poulenc and Satie

Francis Poulenc (piano); Jacques Février* (piano); Orchestre National de la RTF* / George Prêtre (conductor); Orchestre des Concerts Straram** / Walther Straram (conductor) — SOMM Recordings ARIADNE 5041

Poulenc
Concerto for Two Pianos*
Aubade – Concerto for Piano and 16 instruments**
3 Mouvements perpétuels, Nocturne in C, Suite Française

Satie
Descriptions automatiques, Gymnopédie No. 1,
Gnossienne No. 3, Sarabande No. 2,
Avant-dernières pensées,
Croquis et agaceries d’un gros bonhomme en bois

The one thing guaranteed about listening to a composer playing his own music is that we know it is how it is meant to go. We can have no quibbles about tempi and phrasing, and Francis Poulenc was a fine, if not virtuosic, pianist. Sensibly, he wrote parts that he could play well. He made these recordings between 1930 and 1960, with the solo piano pieces by him and Erik Satie played in CBS’s studios in New York in 1950. They reveal his sensitivity and care for the musical line above everything else. The Concerto for Two Pianos, one of his most neoclassical works, was recorded for a 1960 film, and the Aubade right back in January 1930 for Columbia Records. Recording technology changed massively over those thirty years, and the audio restoration by Lani Spahr is impressive, especially for the earlier recordings. The piano itself always comes out best in such restorations, and it is the other instruments that sound a little cramped by modern standards. The point is, though, that this is a superb composer talking to us directly. A must-have for any lover of his music.

Robert Schumann: Piano Works Vol. 2

Llŷr Williams – Piano · Signum Classics (2 CDs) SIGCD923

Programme
Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 3 · Kreisleriana
Études symphoniques · Arabesque Op. 18
Blumenstück Op. 19

Llŷr Williams is every inch the virtuoso pianist but is also good at musical architecture, as he has to be in the Schumann Piano Sonatas, which, though early works, are not the easiest to keep in shape, being full of the composer’s excitement with the Romantic movement. All the works here were written in the 1830s, when Schumann was in his twenties and besotted with first Ernestine von Fricken and then Clara Wieck, though not yet married to her. All of Schumann’s life was emotionally turbulent, but these were the years when he poured his tangled feelings into his piano music.

Williams catches the constant lovesickness of Kreisleriana expertly while still managing a remnant of social decorum. The Études symphoniques were not organised as a complete set until Clara and Brahms set about the task many years after Robert’s death. Despite this chaotic history, Williams has come up with his own sequence for the pieces, so that they hang together as an effective set of variations. They draw on the études tradition established by Hélène de Montgeroult, whose collections both Robert and Clara had studied. Williams makes a strong case for following his suggestions, and the études become the most satisfying pieces for home listening on these discs.

Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 & 8 — Le Matin, Le Midi, Le Soir

Handel and Haydn Society, Boston — Harry Christophers, Conductor · CORO 16214

Programme
Symphony No. 6 in D major Le Matin
Symphony No. 7 in C major Le Midi
Symphony No. 8 in G major Le Soir

It is salutary for Europe’s orchestras to realise that Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra was founded in 1815, only six years after Haydn’s death, and has thrived ever since, unlike many of its counterparts on this side of the Atlantic. It is the USA’s oldest arts organisation and is now directed, as Conductor Laureate, by Harry Christophers, that doyen of British period-performance conductors through his other ensemble, The Sixteen. It is hardly surprising, then, that this recording of three titled symphonies reeks of suave assurance.

These were among the first works Haydn wrote for the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, and they must have made some summer evenings delightful. By giving members of the orchestra so many solos, they are quite close to the concerto grosso form, by 1761 only just going out of fashion in favour of the new term, symphony.

There are plenty of good recordings of these works, but I cannot think of any that are notably better. This is one of those records that it is always tempting to pick when relaxation, not intellectual complexity, is the order of the evening.

Bruckner & Gesualdo: Motets

Monteverdi Choir – Jonathan Sells, Director · Monteverdi Productions SDG736

Programme
Motets by Carlo Gesualdo and Anton Bruckner
Palestrina (arr. Wagner): Stabat Mater
Lotti: Crucifixus a 8

Music could hardly be less relaxing than these works. They are infused with devotional tension. Gesualdo and Bruckner may have been separated by 300 years, but in both cases their music is wracked with passion: in Gesualdo’s case agonised, in Bruckner’s born out of sheer conviction. The latter’s motet, Christus factus est, is magnificent to sing. Bruckner was never afraid to invest his faith in fine melody.

Palestrina’s Stabat Mater (from the generation before Gesualdo) and Antonio Lotti’s Baroque Crucifixus fit well into this company, linking the two main composers to the continuity of the a cappella tradition. The Monteverdi Choir was Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s own ensemble for so long that it is strange to hear it under different direction. Jonathan Sells, though, is as much a singer as a conductor, and this repertoire comes naturally to him.

The pacing is unhurried but never too slow, the crescendi and diminuendi handled with sure instinct. Best of all is the choir’s diction, always clear without sounding too pedantic. This is a cleverly devised and beautifully sung album.

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