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 Crotchet   AmazonUK

Éric PÉNICAUD (b.1952)
Chamber music with guitar
Jubilatio [6:33]
Laure Florentin (soprano), Renaud Duret (guitar)
Le chant du torrent [4:03]
Éric Pénicaud (10 string guitar)
Le nuage d’inconnaissance [8:28]
Hélène Clément, Sylvie Bonet (violin), Valérie Pélissier (viola), Manuel Cartigny (cello), Sylvain Cinquini (guitar)
Petite suite pour les enfants [5:02]
Jean-Christophe Selmi (violin), Renaud Duret (guitar)
Stable/Mouvants [6:43]
Jean-Marc Boissière (flute), Renaud Duret (guitar)
Le fil d’Ariane [7:21]
David Dreyfus (flute), Valérie Pélissier (viola), Sylvain Cinquini (guitar)
Irisation [5:48]
Yannick Pignol (guitar)
Oviri, petit concerto pour le grand large [7:52]
Janette Filipas (alto flute), Franck Pantin (Fender piano and synthesizer), Éric Pénicaud (guitar)
Pour un Finale [1:16]
Gilbert Gambus (darbouka), Éric Pénicaud (electro-acoustic guitar) 
rec. 2006, Studio Richard Larrozé, Aubagne, France
QUANTUM QM7036 [53:35]



Beyond the fact that he was born in Casablanca, I know little of Éric Pénicaud. The booklet notes to this CD – not terribly well Englished – tell us that he is a classical player who can also play jazz and flamenco guitar, though the music on the CD itself would probably be enough to tell us that. But it also goes on to add that he “used to be a guitar player, now his work as a composer (eight international rewards) is definitely overcoming”. I take that to mean that for Pénicaud composing is taking over from playing. Not completely, however, since he plays on the three of the tracks here, on a CD which carries the title ‘Musique de chamber avec guitare’. Pénicaud’s music, on this evidence, is accessible, mildly adventurous, entertainingly eclectic, and works mostly on the small-scale.
 
Unfortunately the booklet is a bit short on hard information, such as the dates of composition - though we are told that the Petite suite pour les enfants is “an early work” - so that I am in no position to speculate about Pénicaud’s development as a composer.
 
Two pieces are for solo guitar. The composer himself, on a 10 string guitar, plays Le chant du torrent, a programmatic piece (though in no way limited by its programmatic intentions) which alternates rapid runs with fragmented phrases, brief moments of calmness with unexpected rhythmic accents, until it finally subsides into silence. Irisation is played by Yannick Pignol; the title (in English at any rate) is a synonym for iridescence and, in meteorology, designates the effect produced by light diffracting around water drops in clouds. Both meanings have a certain aptness to this reflective music, punctuated by unexpected instrumental effects, in which repeated patterns emerge in changed instrumental colouration.
 
There are four duo pieces. In Jubilatio the soprano Laure Martin introduces the piece with some unaccompanied (and wordless) vocal lines which owe something to the cry of the muezzin and something to the traditions of flamenco; in later dialogues the voice and the instrument dominate alternately, before the soprano’s recourse to more ‘western’ lyrical patterns and to some quasi-twelve-tone vocal lines effects a change in direction. This is a haunting and resonant piece – I have returned to it more often than to any other track on the CD. The Petite suite is less adventurous, more simply tonal, divided into four linked movements, pleasant but rather slight. In Stable/Mouvants there are, as the title implies, plenty of antitheses and contrasts, most noticeably in the form of changes of tempo, but also in terms of the contrast between the percussive single sounds and legato phrases. It makes for intriguing and engaging listening. The CD closes with what seems to be a concert recording - whereas the other tracks were obviously recorded in the studio - of a duet between Pénicaud’s guitar and the darbouka (a goblet drum played with the hands) of Gilbert Gambus. Much in this piece sounds improvised – indeed, I would be interested to know how far there are elements of improvisation on some of the other tracks too.
 
Increasing the ensemble by another instrument, there are two trios on the CD. Le fil d’Ariane – though I am not sure how it relates to Ariadne’s thread – is a well-made piece in which the guitar dominates less than it does in some of the other pieces. There are lovely tone colours to be had from this particular combination of instruments, and this is a rewarding exploration, less labyrinthine than its title might suggest. Oviri (can this be the Tahitian word which Gauguin uses, meaning, I think, something like “a savage who lives in the forest”?) involves, I suspect, a good deal of improvisation, especially in the extended solo for Pénicaud’s guitar; it has a certain grace, but not much ‘wildness’, and its subtitle suggests the sea rather than the forest, so perhaps my guess about the title is wrong. It is a pleasant, but not especially memorable piece.
 
The largest ensemble here is made up of string quartet and guitar, and is heard in Le nuage d’inconnaissance. Pénicaud is clearly one for allusive titles and this is presumably a reference to the anonymous fourteenth-century English spiritual treatise known as the Cloud of Unknowing? The booklet notes by Richard Larrozé tell us only that the composer’s one observation on the work is “‘no comment’ (in English)” – which rather confirms the allusion, since The Cloud of Unknowing is much concerned with the inhibiting effects of the human desire to understand, to have things explained! Far be it from me, then, to attempt any ‘explanation’! Suffice it to say that it is a work of fair musical subtlety, meditative, yet with moments of real power; perhaps the most obviously ‘classical’ piece on the disc, it has revealed more of itself on each of several listenings.
 
This music is not startling innovative nor of great profundity. It is, though, music which is well-made and seems to speak clearly of a distinctive personality.
 
Glyn Pursglove
 



 


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.