Germaine TAILLEFERRE (1892-1983)
Her Piano Works, Revived 1
Nicolas Horvath (piano)
rec. 2021, Misy sur Yonne, France
GRAND PIANO GP891 [83:21]
Germaine Tailleferre was the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six (others included Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud), and lived something of the vie bohéme in Paris in the 1920s. We know that she composed mainly at the piano, which makes it hard to know how many of her works were ‘sketches’ or starting points for other music: this Grand Piano disc has 55 tracks, some of which belong together in groups, such as ‘Fleurs de France’ (1930), Suite dans le style Louis XV, and transcriptions of works by Monteverdi, Lully, Scarlatti and others.
Tailleferre, though a modest, thoughtful person, showed her sense of rebellion during her teens by changing her name from ‘Taillefesse’ as a deliberate slight to her father, who had discouraged and failed to support her musical aspirations. Unfortunately, though, she never regained in later life the acclaim she had enjoyed through her early associations with Les Six. Two unhappy marriages (to the caricaturist Ralph Barton in 1926 and to the lawyer Jean Lageat in 1931) proved a considerable drain on her creative energies, and her continual financial problems led her to compose mostly to commission, resulting in many uneven and quickly written works. Also, her natural modesty and unjustified sense of artistic insecurity prevented her from promoting herself properly, something in which, in that era, her male colleagues were far more adept.
For too long, Tailleferre’s work has been cruelly neglected. The Monaco-born pianist Nicolas Horvath has become a great champion, and his versatility lends itself to the many aspects of her musical personality. She switches from diatonic to bitonal, from neo-classical to progressive, from rhythmic and familiar to irregular and dissonant, and we can perceive influences on this disc as wide-ranging as Fauré, Ravel and Stravinsky. Horvath encompasses all these stylistic complexities with technical and musical assurance, and proves a great advocate.
Some of the tracks contain pieces which are either harmonic exercises (e.g. track 1), while others are fairly straightforward transcriptions (e.g. the ‘Petites ouvertures d’airs anciens’). But in amongst these are many works of vivid character, such as the Fandango (track 6), or the lovely ‘Pastorale in C’, where the influence of Francis Poulenc can be felt keenly in the deliciously faux-naïf melodic writing. Harder to like is the strange Sous le rampart d’Athènes, written at the behest of the poet Paul Claudel to accompany a ‘philosophical dialogue’ he had written. It is an uncharacteristically solemn piece, dominated by lengthy trills and dark statements. Horvath does his very best with it.
But most of the music here is well worth hearing. There is a pleasantly crazy Pastorale Inca (Tailleferre seems to have had a particular liking for the term ‘Pastorale’), and the last two tracks are very engaging, containing a Moderato and an Allegro with the title ‘Au pavillon d’Alsace’. The first of these, a relaxed waltz with a slightly jazzy feel, is the only number where I found Horvath not quite convincing – he is rather wooden, and the music fails to swing as it should. A small blemish, and he follows that up with a brilliant final Allegro.
A fine disc which displays the enormous breadth of Tailleferre’s achievement, and celebrates her outstanding musical gifts. I look forward to the next volume in this exciting series.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Contents
Exercise d’harmonie (Chant donné par Florent Schmitt) [0:54]
Impromptu [2:09]
Romance [2:16]
Pas trop vite [00:48]
Pastorale in D [1:28]
Fandango [1:44]
Hommage à Debussy [0:46]
Trés vite…..[1:57]
Petites Ouvertures d’airs anciens (transcription et realisation de la basse continue)
[tracks 9-32, 16:26]
Sous le tampart d’Athènes [15:48]
Sicilienne [3:09]
Pastorale in A flat [3:00]
Pastorale in C [3:41]
Fleurs de France [7:49]
Pastorale Inca [3:09]
Pasorale Amazone [2:21]
Berceuse [2:20]
Suite dans le style ‘Louis XV’ [6:49]
Marche Funèbre (Comique?) [1:17]
Au pavillon d’Alsace [4:54]
