Faust Anne Imhof

This album from Krautrock legends contains unpublished and remixed material from 1971/72, 2 Live songs plus 2 new songs.

Funèbre stands out in the New Series both for its due attention to German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) and for welcoming conductor Christoph Poppen and the Munich Chamber Orchestra into the ECM fold. The latter have since gone on to record a number of pivotal records for the label, including the all-Scelsi program Natura Renovatur and the Bach/Webern crossover project Ricercar. Here they are joined by violinist Isabelle Faust, the Petersen String Quartet, and clarinetist Paul Meyer for a shuffling of dark, darker, and darkest.

Isabelle Faust is one of the most impressive violinists of the generation that emerged in the 1990s. She is known for exceptional technique and strong interpretive instincts. She performs a wide-ranging repertoire, from J.S Bach all the way through to contemporary composers such as Ligeti, Lachenmann and Widmann. Ever keen to explore new musical horizons, Faust is equally at home as a chamber musician and as a soloist with major orchestras or period ensembles. Over the course of her career, she has regularly performed with world-renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Frans Brüggen, Mariss Jansons, Giovanni Antonini, Philippe Herreweghe, Daniel Harding and Bernard Haitink.

Isabelle Faust and François-Xavier Roth explore here extremely contrasting facets of Stravinsky’s output for violin. From the Concerto to the Pastorale, the composer plays with codes and colours, sketching extraordinarily vivid soundscapes. Once again, the musicians of Les Siècles have succeeded in rediscovering the works’ original dynamic by using period instruments – and that changes everything!

After a successful trilogy devoted to the concertos and trios of Schumann, Freiburger Barockorchester and Pablo Heras-Casado could not ignore one of Beethoven's most unusual works: the Triple Concerto. Alongside Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexander Melnikov, they bring this score to life as only true chamber musicians can, revealing it's subtlest colors and balances. The trio transcription of the Second Symphony, which was supervised by the composer himself, judiciously completes this exploration of lesser-known Beethoven, in which intimacy mingles with grandeur.

Faust's second album moves closer to actual song structure than their debut, but it still remains experimental. Songs progress and evolve instead of abruptly stopping or cutting into other tracks. The opening song "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" begins as a repetitive 4/4 beat played on toms and piano with the title sung over the top. But for seven minutes the song adds instruments, including a lush analog synth line, and ends in a memorable sax riff. Faust's lyrical side appears on the acoustic "Picnic on a Frozen River" and "On the Way to Adamäe," whereas its abrasive side pops up on "Me Lack Space." "So Far," a jam shared by guitar, horns, and tweedy keyboard, rolls along with a funky hypnotic beat and wailing processed synths…

Deeply scarred by the First World War and by the upheavals of the October Revolution in his homeland, Stravinsky found, with the help of the Swiss author Ramuz, a subject that resonated perfectly with his era. In this music theatre piece inspired by an old Russian folktale, The Deserter and the Devil, the composer of The Rite of Spring explored new paths in the last months of the First World War, which would soon lead him to a very personal form of neo-classicism.

The harmonia mundi label's ongoing series of recordings marking the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy continues with this fascinating album of chamber works. On it, violinist Isabelle Faust has brought together an all-star team of musicians including cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, violist Antoine Tamestit, flutist Magali Mosnier, harpist Xavier de Maistre and pianists Alexander Melnikov, Javier Perianes, and Tanguy de Williencourt. Three sonatas are the focal point here, with accompanied works for cello and violin complemented by the glorious Sonata for flute, Viola and Harp. The remainder of the program features a colorful selection of piano works from the composer's late period.

Faust's second album moves closer to actual song structure than their debut, but it still remains experimental. Songs progress and evolve instead of abruptly stopping or cutting into other tracks. The opening song "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" begins as a repetitive 4/4 beat played on toms and piano with the title sung over the top. But for seven minutes the song adds instruments, including a lush analog synth line, and ends in a memorable sax riff. Faust's lyrical side appears on the acoustic "Picnic on a Frozen River" and "On the Way to Adamäe," whereas its abrasive side pops up on "Me Lack Space." "So Far," a jam shared by guitar, horns, and tweedy keyboard, rolls along with a funky hypnotic beat and wailing processed synths…

These performances are absolutely stunning, so much so that a reappraisal of Schumann’s Violin sonatas is in order. What once sounded like pre-Brahmsian music (as presented by Ara Malikian and Serouj Kradjian on Hänssler Classic), with its harmonic exploration and varied moods, is here revealed as the full-bodied passion of Schumann at his most impetuous. (It’s interesting to note that these two women–violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Silke Avenhaus–come up with far more aggressive and masculine interpretations than do the two men on the Hänssler disc.)