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             


CD REVIEW

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

alternatively Classicsonline AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Gustave SAMAZEUILH (1877-1967)
Le Chant de la Mer (1918-19) [21:10]
Suite en Sol (1902 rev. 1911) [16:56]
Trois Petites Inventions (1903) [6:24]
Naiades au Soir (1910) [7:21]
Esquisses (1944-45) [10:41]
Evocation (1947) [3:37]
Stéphane Lemelin (piano)
rec. 24-26 June 1999, Convocation Hall, University of Alberta. DDD
ATMA CLASSIQUE ACD22210
[66:44]
Experience Classicsonline


ATMA and Stéphane Lemelin have established a reputation for exploring composers relegated to the periphery of French music. This disc cuts a piano solo cross-section through the composer's far from plenteous output.
 

Born into an artistic and affluent family in Bordeaux Samazeuilh had entrée to the music-cultural elite of his day. Around the turn of the century he studied with Chausson, d'Indy and Dukas at the Schola Cantorum. His catalogue of works is sparing but includes a Fantaisie Elegiaque beloved of Thibaud and Cortot, a string trio and string quintet alongside some orchestral pieces and songs. He wrote about music and translated into French the libretti of Tristan and Isolde and Strauss's Capriccio.

Le Chant de la Mer is his most extensive work for solo piano. It is a triptych with a slow surging Prelude suggestive of the ponderous majesty of the oceans. Rooted in their peerless depths, we hear an impressionistic and rich Claire de lune au large which evokes the far horizons of Koechlin's Les Heures Persanes. The last movement Tempête et lever du jour sur les flots is replete with threat and anger but finally rises above negation to a stunningly defiant climax irradiated by sunlight and triumph. A magnificent piece of music which should be much more widely known and played. There are separate dedications for each movement: to Francis Planté, Marguérite Long and Alfred Cortot.

The six movement Suite was written when he was 25. Each episode takes a classical title but there is no parody, no tawdry. One might compare this suite with Warlock's Capriol of a decade or so later. The Three little Inventions are tributes to Bach but with a lightly romanticised haze at the edges. 

Naiades au Soir steps back from ancient composition models to produce in masterly fashion an impressionistic essay which is fragile yet resilient. It ends in a warming haze of cushioned bass resonance. It's a rich piece which drew an orchestral version from the composer. 

The last two works on this disc date from three decades later just after the Second World War. The Dédicace of Esquisses inhabits a similar world to the Prelude of Chant de la Mer. Luciole is a pell-mell Flight of the bumble bee which melts away quickly into an abrupt silence. Serenade is for left-hand only and the final and very lucid  Souvenir for the right hand alone is clearly Spanish-inflected. It would go well in recital with Rapsodie espagnole. The piece ends with a fine Iberian stutter. The four pieces in Esquisses are respectively dedicated to the French pianists Tatiana de Sanzéwitch, Jeanne-Marie Darré, Jean Doyen and Marcel Ciampi. 

The gentle Evocation is dedicated to Georges Enesco who had retired to Paris and to seeming anonymity.

Lemelin negotiates all this allusive and often subtle music with fluency and fibre - qualities also evident in his programme notes. More please: collections of piano music by Bonnal, Witkowski and d'Ollonne would be very acceptable.

Rob Barnett


 




 


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

 

 


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




Return to Review Index

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.