MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Gabriel PIERNÉ (1863-1937)
Marche des petits soldats de plomb (1887) [2:08]
Piano Concerto (1887) [18:44]
Divertissements sur un Thème Pastoral (1931) [11:55]
Ramuntcho Suite No.1 (1908) [18:50]
Ramuntcho Suite No.2 (1908) [14:56]
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena
rec. Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester, 19 December 2009 (Marche des petits soldats de plomb) and 8-9 January 2010.
CHANDOS CHAN 10633 [67:23]

Experience Classicsonline



 
Gabriel Pierné is one of those composers whose name has long been in the shadow of more popular composers; in this case that of Maurice Ravel, but also of Albert Roussel; all three of whom coincidentally died in the same year. Pierné was certainly no modernist, and he spent more energy on a fine career as a conductor rather than on composing, which he did whilst on summer retreats in Brittany. While lack of fashionable credit might have kept his name in relative obscurity this is no reflection on the innate quality of his work, and this fine recording will do no harm to his reputation.
 
The programme begins with the Marche des petits soldats de plomb acting as an overture. This first appeared as a piano piece, but Pierné was able to ride its popularity by making a charmingly inventive and once famous orchestral version. The “old-fashioned nursery charm” of this opening is set directly against the grand opening gestures of the Piano Concerto.My only previous experience with Pierné’s C minor piano concerto on one of those BIS ‘twins’ releases, coupled with the Tchaikovsky and Grieg concertos and with Dag Achatz as soloist. This certainly didn’t make as huge an impression as this spectacular new recording with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The opening effect of the piano chords transforming into orchestral sound is quite magical, and the booklet notes by Gerald Larner correctly identify an anticipation of Rachmaninoff in some aspects of this music. The overall style is high romantic, but with a clarity of expression which carries the listener along as easily as anything by Saint-Saëns, who is also identified as an influential factor in the structure of the piece. Pierné has his own magnificent big tune moments though, and the first movement Allegro is a masterpiece of emotional manipulation – heroic and triumphantly emotional by turns. The central movement is a scherzo rather than a slower centre, the demanding journey of the first movement having already been weighty enough to find us deserving a lighter section. Fleeting and virtuosic piano writing and transparent orchestration give this movement a delightfully balletic feel. This sets us up for the roller-coaster ride of the Finale, which recalls the main theme from the first movement as well as putting a cyclic structure to work which is reminiscent of techniques employed by Pierné’s organ teacher César Franck. This is large-scale and ambitious writing, but avoids becoming heavy through plenty of light and shade contrasts both in material and orchestration, which is frequently quite sparing. The vast range of the recording brings Pierné’s colours to vibrant life, and this combined with such a potent performance grants this neglected concerto a well deserved revival.
 
A much later work, the Divertissements sur un Thème Pastoral contrasts hugely with the romantic overtones of the Piano Concerto. There are elements of neo-classicism in the piece, and with the Parisian air filled with the cultural revolutions of ‘Les six’ and the influx of new kinds of popular music there would have been plenty for an imaginative composer to get his teeth into. While the romantic feel is still present, this is tinged with a palette which allows slide trombones and witty syncopation, swooping film-music gestures and the introduction of an orchestral saxophone. This ‘new stuff’ appears with a slightly coy, almost Elgar-like reserve, but you can sense the older composer enjoying himself immensely, and the closing moments of the work are superbly uplifting.
 
The name Ramuntcho comes from a novel from 1897 by Pierre Loti. The two suites performed here derive from Pierné’s incidental music from a stage production of the story. This tells of an eponymous hero who returns to his village after military service, only to find his bride-to be in enforced confinement to a convent. The story ends with Gracieuse dying, torn between the choice which she has to make between God and her lover. Pierné’s score delivered more than the rather melodramatic tale would seem to indicate possible, but he made full use of the regional colour in the story, conjuring the pungent Basque atmosphere with confident ebullience in the Overture. There are intensely beautiful moments, such as the scene in Le Jardin de Gracieuse, the interaction of the two main characters depicted by a duet of flutes which move lyrically over a bed of strings, harp and warm wind chords. Moving theatricality is drawn out of La chamber de Franchita, in which the hero’s sick mother lies, close to death. This desolation is punctured by the lively Fandango which follows, recalling earlier village dances. The second suite opens with another sprightly piece, evoking the folk-character of a cider house. The piety and sober gloom of Le Couvent follows, rich in the kinds of parallel progressions which Poulenc used in his opera on the Carmelites. The whole thing closes with a Rhapsodie Basque, which opens with a funereal tread, but gradually picks up tempo in a kind of review of the play in reverse. Whatever the nature of the story, this is very fine music and fully capable of standing alone as a concert work. The perfectly balanced sonorities of the BBC Philharmonic do it magnificent justice.
 
This is a very fine disc indeed. Beautifully recorded and performed, Juanjo Mena has a seemingly effortless control of every subtlety in these scores, and as previously mentioned the cause of Gabriel Pierné should be greatly enhanced with this release. The biggest item is the Piano Concerto, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s storming of the CD catalogue continues apace. Everything here is well worth acquiring though, and this is a programme with no fillers.
 
Dominy Clements
 



 

 

 

 

 



 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.