Post pinned until October 16 release date
Frenchman Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) left us some very likeable music, as Chandos has already proven, and its Schmitt show continues here, impressively. Symphonie concertante, first performed in 1932 by the Boston Symphony and Koussevitzky with the composer at the piano, is a great piece of rhythmic vitality and lyrical loveliness, the central movement a forest-legend gem, the outer ones, all three are around the twelve-minute mark, conjure with colour and quick-change invention, ending energetically, with parity between piano, Peter Donohoe in splendid form, and orchestra, such equality reflected in Stephen Rinker’s recorded sound.
Trois Danses, orchestrated from piano originals, are alternatively attractive or seductive, while the memorial to Dukas is heavy of heart, unequivocally sad, leaving Çançunik (first recording) to be ‘one way’, in the sense of a radio broadcast, and, indeed, that was the genesis of these two sizeable movements, the first a ravishing nocturne, its successor a tarantella. First-rate performances led by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Chandos CHAN 20366 is released on October 16.
Symphonie concertante for piano and orchestra
Trois Danses
Stèle pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas
Çançunik