Eric Le Sage

Schumann's chamber compositions are undoubtedly among the most important European works of the nineteenth century. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was the archetypal Romantic composer, a man with unbounded imagination, who mastered almost every genre of his time.

Winner of the Prix de l Académie Charles Cros, this set brings together Robert Schumann s complete works for solo piano. This great cycle benefited from having been recorded in the unique acoustics of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, by Jean-Marc Laisné. Sales of the 13 CDs comprising this set have exceeded 20,000 copies around the world. This complete recording is now acknowledged as a reference and, at the same time, an important step in the artistic life of pianist Eric Le Sage.

This seven-disc box set from Alpha presents Robert Schumann’s complete chamber music with piano, played by a highly respected interpreter of Schumann's works, Eric Le Sage. The pianist is joined by outstanding musicians Paul Meyer, Francois Salque, Franck Braley, Antoine Tamesit, and others, who enable the listener to fully appreciate these masterful works written by genius of German Romanticism.

Julian Prégardien decided to record the Dichterliebe cycle after he came across the new Bärenreiter edition; he went on to explore the work in concerts with his constant accompanist, Eric Le Sage, inserting other works by Robert and also by Clara Schumann, whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2019. When Clara played the Dichterliebe in the 1860s, she used to slip extracts from Kreisleriana between the songs. Eric Le Sage records the same extracts on a Blüthner piano of 1856, the year of Robert’s death, and also to include Romances composed by both Robert and Clara at a time when their future marriage was still uncertain. The sublime ballade Löwenbraut also forms part of the programme – a reminder of the young Robert’s anguish on Clara’s departure.

Both of the works on this 2024 release by pianist Éric Le Sage, violinist Daishin Kashimoto, and the Schumann Quartet have seen their fortunes rise in recent years as sumptuous late French Romanticism seemed somehow to resonate with the over-the-top luxuries of the present day. There have been several good readings of Chausson's Concerto for piano, violin, and string quartet, a unique work that combines the utmost lushness with considerable art in balancing the various forces involved. The work has attracted some big names, but this one, with Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster rendering the concerto's soaring passionate lines, can stand with any of them.

Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Zvi Plesser and Éric Le Sage, who have been close musical partners for years, joined forces once again at the Salon de Provence Chamber Music Festival to record this programme devoted to Viennese composers of the early twentieth century. The most famous and innovative of these are represented: Schoenberg with his Kammersymphonie no.1, Mahler with two lieder transcribed for flute and piano, Zemlinsky’s Clarinet Trio and several pieces by Berg. A disc that encapsulates both the exhaustion of a bygone Romantic age and the avant-garde promises of a modern world still to be built…