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Fête du Soleil: À votre santé
Yi Lin Jiang (piano)
rec. 2021/2022, Kronenzentrum Bietgheim, Germany
ANCLEF 20220913 [66]

Recital programmes often look for a theme or some kind of structure to give the listener a narrative, and Fête du soleil takes us through the phases of “an endless day of eternal summer.” Yi Lin Jiang sees this as “an artistic work of escapism to celebrate the joie de vivre” within such a day, and his booklet notes take the form of descriptive vignettes based on his own travels. These attractive mini-stories are combined with anecdotes and some context for the pieces recorded.

Previous albums from Yi Lin Jiang would lead us to expect world class playing and production, and this is very much the case here. Previous releases include a recital on the Solaris label entitled Masques (review) and the two Dualis albums (review and review). From his own Anclef label we have had Brahms in partnership with Jacopo Giovannini (review), as well as IV-XXI (In Memoriam) (review), and I hear that there is plenty more in the pipeline. All of these recordings have a fine balance and nice depth of sound, with Fête du Soleil set in a nicely spacious acoustic and the kind of distance between player and listener that gives the latter the feeling they have the best seat in the hall.

It is nice to hear this artist in more light-hearted mode with this luminous recording. With its selected movements this is not the kind of recording with which you will feel the need to haul out comparisons, more one to just sit back and enjoy for what is on offer.

The first section takes us from morning to afternoon, opening with a wake-up call from Albéniz’s Iberia and a suitably muscular El Puerto. This is followed by El Albaicín, where we stroll through the old Arabian quarter of Granada and take in some hot-blooded flamenco as the temperature of the day rises. Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso delivers the link between composers in its Spanish rhythms, and a poetic and atmospheric rendering of La Vallée des cloches envelopes us with “inner peace”, only to be broken by the sprightly and humorous dance La Théière et la Tasse chinoise. This has been very effectively arranged for piano from the opera L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, nicely bringing out its little jazzy touches and moments of polytonality. This section is concluded with Ravel’s lovely waltz À la manière de … Alexandre Borodine.

Seamlessly moving into afternoon-evening, Respighi’s Valse caressante is every bit as Parisian as Ravel’s, Jiang being artlessly flexible in his rubati while always maintaining that essential dance feel in the music. A return to the more meaty touch of Isaac Albéniz takes us forward in this triple-time dance sequence with Champagne, a piece that “underlines the wonderful Mediterranean spirit of joy and life, setting the rhythm for the continuing celebration tonight.”

Evening and night are portrayed by Schumann’s Carnaval, “a pianistic, one-of-a-kind bal masque with coquettish humour and dazzling expression.” Jiang’s performance has no fear of Schumann’s nervy extremes of dynamic and insistent repetitions, often driving the tempo forwards into an intoxicating but edgy Viennese whirl. He admits the influence of Evgeny Kissin’s remarkable recording of this work, using this and other springboards “to finally overcome my original hesitation since childhood to simply ‘go crazy’ while performing this masterwork now with braveness and full dedication.” While by no means neglecting the sensitive poetic moments in this work Jiang’s playing is full of excitement and passion, the duration of this substantial work not distorting the proportions of this recital too much through the brief nature of most of its 21 movements.

These nocturnal festivities and the return of morning are represented in an encore in the shape of Albéniz’s spectacular Málaga from Iberia, a piece in which Jiang refers to Alicia de Larrocha’s fiery 1962 recording. Aside from its Parisian excursions, Jiang sums up this programme as “a love letter to the north-western Mediterranean Sea”, and I can’t imagine refusing such a delightful missive.

Dominy Clements
 
Contents
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
Iberia «Cuaderno Intenso»
El Puerto
El Albaicín
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Miroirs
Alborada del gracioso
La Vallée des cloches
Maurice Ravel — Yi Lin Jiang (b. 1988)
L’Enfant et les Sortilèges
La Théière et la Tasse chinoise
Maurice Ravel
À la manière de … Alexandre Borodine
Valse
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
Sei pezzi
Valse caressante
Isaac Albéniz
Champagne
Valse de salon
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Carnaval
Isaac Albéniz
Iberia «Cuaderno Intenso»
Málaga