Un violon à Paris
Renaud Capuçon (violin), Guillaume Bellom (piano)
rec. May 2021 Rosey Concert Hall, Rolle, Switzerland
ERATO 9029652001 [80:13]
Celebrated violinist Renaud Capuçon joins with pianist Guillaume Bellom for a compilation album 'Un violon à Paris'. In 2020, throughout the first lockdown in France, Capuçon and Bellom performed on social media a different work each day from their homes at a prescribed time for fifty-six days to bolster the morale of their followers. The duo sees the album as a personal response to their memories of the French coronavirus lockdown in 2020.
This is a broad selection of twenty-two, mainly much-loved works for violin and piano comprising single contributions from eighteen different composers and double contributions from Rachmaninov and Debussy spanning some three centuries from late-baroque composers Handel and Bach to a father and son combination Ennio and Andrea Morricone, who collaborated on their film score to Cinema Paradiso (1988).
The scope of the collection is not quite as wide as I had anticipated, as I had expected more jazz-infused works and some contemporary pieces. There is certainly nothing too challenging to stretch the listener’s mind and all the works could be classed as being of the agreeable ‘easy-listening variety’, with memorable melodies. Many of these pieces have been transcribed from their original form for violin and piano, such as Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, a song for wordless soprano, the Chopin Nocturne No 20 in C-sharp minor for solo piano and Puccini’s O mio babbino caro, an aria from his opera Gianni Schicchi.
Undemanding for the listener, these short pieces, such as Massenet’s Méditation from his opera Thaïs and also Elgar’s Chanson de Matin (Morning Song),
a work in its original form, display the expressive qualities of the violin
and likely serve well as encore pieces . The only pieces I was encountering for the first time were Ennio and Andrea Morricone’s Childhood and Manhood from the film Cinema Paradiso, and Stéphane Grappelli’s Rolls from the film Les valseuses, in truth, works that didn’t have much appeal to me.
Of course, the main focus is placed on the solo violin part rather than the piano. Nevertheless, pianist Guillaume Bellom provides
a responsive and valuable contribution to the partnership. My favourite pieces are headed by the hauntingly beautiful Marietta’s Lied from Korngold’s opera Die Tote Stadt. Capuçon’s playing is highly affecting and I’m surprised the piece isn’t far better known. I greatly admire Elgar’s perennially popular Chanson de Matin and Charlie Chaplin’s unforgettable and much-loved song Smile from his silent comedy film Modern Times. Capuçon’s playing of Massenet’s Méditation, a portrayal of the heroine Thaïs, is more introspective than oversweet. Similarly brooding and tender is Puccini’s O mio babbino caro, the song of the lovestruck young woman Lauretta who is at crisis point. The two transcriptions of Debussy solo piano works
too are played quite beautifully.
In 2013, I reviewed a live concert with Capuçon playing the Bruch first Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and noted his adept technique. Now, some years on with this new Erato album, one realises how that accomplishment makes everything seem deceptively easy. It is noticeable in these glowing interpretations how he slightly emphasises the melodic lines and how sensibly he manages the dynamic and expressive details without resorting to either syrupy extravagance or inappropriate cut-and-thrust.
According to the booklet notes, Capuçon and Bellom made this recording at Le Rosey Concert Hall, which is contained within the stainless-steel dome of the Paul and Henri Carnal Hall in the Le Rosey Institute in Rolle. The hall was opened in 2014 and designed with a state-of-the-art acoustic, although I suspect that this recording was made in one of the smaller rooms there. The booklet provides a list of works and a brief note by Capuçon, but essentially little else.
Michael Cookson
Contents
Georg Friedrich Handel
1. Sonata in D major for violin and continuo, HWV 371, Op 1 No 13: Larghetto [3:09]
Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major, BWV 1068: Air ('Air on a G String') [3:38]
(transcribed by Renaud Capuçon & Guillaume Bellom)
Fritz Kreisler
3. Praeludium and Allegro (in the style of Pugnani) [5:58]
Robert Schumann
4. Romance in A major, Op 94, No 2 [4:07]
Franz Schubert
5. Ständchen 'Leise flehen meine Lieder', D957 No 4 [3:34]
Frederic Chopin
6. Nocturne No 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. post. [4:05]
(arranged by Nathan Milstein)
Richard Wagner
7. Albumblatt 'In das Album der Fürstin M.', WWV 94 [4:48]
(transcribed by A. Wilhelm)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
8. Glück, das mir verbleib 'Marietta's Lied' (from opera Die Tote Stadt) [5:17]
Giacomo Puccini
9. O mio babbino caro (from the opera Gianni Schicchi) [2:01]
Sergei Rachmaninov
10. ‘Zdes’ khorosho’ (How fair this spot), Op 21, No 7 [2:00]
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky
11. Iolanta arioso ‘Atchevo eta prezdhe ne znala’ (from
the opera Iolanta) [2:25]
Sergei Rachmaninov
12. Vocalise, Op 34, No 14 [6:01]
(transcribed by M. Press)
Antonín Dvořák
13. Songs My Mother Taught Me (from Gypsy Songs, Op 55, No 4) [2:06]
(transcribed by M. Powell)
Jules Massenet
14. Méditation from Thaïs [6:03]
(transcribed by Martin Pierre Marsick)
Claude Debussy
15. La fille aux cheveux de lin (from Préludes - Book 1: No 8) [2:38]
(transcribed by A. Hartmann)
16. Clair de Lune (from Suite Bergamasque) [4:32]
(transcribed by A. Roelens)
Eugène Ysaÿe
17. Rêve d'enfant, Op 14 [4:09]
Johannes Brahms
18. Hungarian Dance No 5 in G minor [2:19]
(transcribed by J. Joachim)
Edward Elgar
19. Chanson de Matin, Op 15, No 2 [2:31]
Charlie Chaplin
20. ‘Smile’, from the film Modern Times [4:07]
(arranged by P. Quint & C. Coleman)
Ennio Morricone & Andrea Morricone
Cinema Paradiso: Childhood and Manhood [2:20]
(transcribed by Guillaume Bellom)
Stéphane Grappelli
22. Rolls from the film Les Valseuses [2:16]
