At two-for-one price
this double gives you the chance to
delve into comparatively rare chamber
music territory. Virgin and the Kandinsky
Quartet have stepped outside the common
French repertoire. Although the discs
are hardly packed to capacity they are
nevertheless a passport into what for
many will be an undiscovered country.
All the composers on
show here, save Saint-Saëns, were
pupils of Franck. All of these French
nineteenth century piano quartets are
in four movements apart from the incomplete
Lekeu.
The de Castillon,
which was dedicated to Anton Rubinstein,
has a tortured Beethovenian passion
and a loveably romantic Larghetto.
His Piano Concerto was premiered by
Saint-Saëns in 1872 at a Pasdeloup
concert. It was hissed by the audience
who objected to such serious music.
You can hear it still if you can track
down EMI Classics CDM 7 63943 2 - part
of EMI’s valuable ‘L’Esprit Française’
series. There the concerto is played
by Aldo Ciccolini and the orchestra
is the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
conducted by Georges Prêtre. The
coupling is de Castillon’s other major
orchestral work. Esquisses Symphoniques.
At some stage it would be interesting
to hear his two string quartets, two
piano trios and violin sonata.
Saint-Saëns
was a prodigal writer. Not surprisingly,
his 1875 Piano Quartet is a brilliant
piece with ideas tumbling out in profusion.
While Mendelssohn is undoubtedly a presence
in this music so too is Beethoven; just
as much as in the French composer’s
famous Second Piano Concerto. As for
Mendelssohn, the work most often recalled
is the Capriccio Brillant although
the fleet-footed fairies of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream caper through the
pages of the poco allegro. At
6.30 in the finale, Saint-Saëns
achieves a magically hushed effect with
the return of the main theme - a coup
worthy of Fauré. The Chausson
is the longest work here. It is also
the latest. Its rounded melodic contours
and lofty fervour relate it to the piano
quartets of Fauré’s; especially
the First. The dark urgency apparent
in the finale relates back to the music
of César Franck. If the ideas
are not as resilient and fresh as those
of his two models this music has great
atmosphere. Two movements (here presented
in a single track) are all that was
written of the Lekeu Piano Quartet
in B minor. This too has warm and rushing
melos of sound added to which Lekeu
brings a triumphant joy disporting in
a sunny Gallic radiance; playful and
passionate.
The notes are very
short for such unfamiliar music. However
if you fancy a sultry ambience (largely
indistinguishable between the two venues)
and a surgingly romantic and warm-blooded
approach to four nineteenth century
French piano quartets you need look
no further.
Rob Barnett
Quatuor Kandinsky: Claire Désert (piano);
Philippe Aïche (violin); Nicolas Bône
(viola); Nadine Pierre (cello) 
