Laurent Alexandre

Poulenc - Complete Chamber Music, Vol.1 - Alexandre Tharaud et al. (2000) {Naxos 8.553611}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 208 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 134 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 67 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Naxos / HNH International | 8.553611
Classical / Early Modern / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

This excellent first volume in what promises to be a two-disc collection of Poulenc's complete chamber music offers performances that compare favorably with the best available. All of the musicians are superb, but several deserve special mention. Alexandre Tharaud plays Poulenc's piano parts with great flair, wit, and a true feeling for the music's manic shifts from raucous high spirits to nostalgia and melancholy. Since all of these works feature the piano, the importance of his contribution can't be overestimated.

Poulenc - Complete Chamber Music, Vol.1 - Alexandre Tharaud et al. (2000) {Naxos 8.553611}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 208 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 134 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 67 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Naxos / HNH International | 8.553611
Classical / Early Modern / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

This excellent first volume in what promises to be a two-disc collection of Poulenc's complete chamber music offers performances that compare favorably with the best available. All of the musicians are superb, but several deserve special mention. Alexandre Tharaud plays Poulenc's piano parts with great flair, wit, and a true feeling for the music's manic shifts from raucous high spirits to nostalgia and melancholy. Since all of these works feature the piano, the importance of his contribution can't be overestimated.

Poulenc - Complete Chamber Music, Vol.4 - Alexandre Tharaud et al. (2000) {Naxos 8.553614}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 215 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 141 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 97 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Naxos / HNH International | 8.553614
Classical / Early Modern / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

Naxos’ first-rate edition of Poulenc’s complete chamber music continues with this very fine collection of shorter pieces and song cycles for voice and small ensemble. Baritone Franck Leguérinel turns in a smashing performance of Le Bal masqué from its manic opening Air de bravoure to the hysterical falsetto antics in the closing Caprice. He’s equally fine in Le Bestiaire, but the cruel vocal line and harmonic acerbities of the Max Jacob songs prove less congenial, though he’s no less stylistically assured.

Poulenc - Complete Chamber Music, Vol.3 - Alexandre Tharaud et al. (2000) {Naxos 8.553613}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 194 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 145 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 67 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Naxos / HNH International | 8.553613
Classical / Early Modern / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

Naxos' triumphant march through Poulenc's complete chamber music continues with this latest release containing, among a host of smaller items, a smashing performance of the magnificent Sonata for Two Pianos, one of the composer's greatest large works in any medium. Alexandre Tharaud and Francis Chaplin play beautifully…hypnotically seductive in the slow introduction and third movement, while the faster music has the right rhythmic skittishness and crisp articulation. The other outstanding performance here is the Sonata for horn, trumpet, and trombone. This awkward but charming piece has seldom sounded better balanced and more natural (not to mention in tune), and it's very well recorded in a warm acoustic. The other pieces are trifles, but no less enjoyable for that. Another winner.

Poulenc - Complete Chamber Music, Vol.5 - Alexandre Tharaud et al. (2000) {Naxos 8.553615}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 256 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 172 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 70 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2000 Naxos / HNH International | 8.553615
Classical / Early Modern / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

The narrators are two gifted children, the pianist Alezandre Tharaud, whose acute playing has sparked the series. Set for narrator and small ensemble and originally improvised to please the composer's three-year old cousin, the tale of Babar the Elephant receives a charming performance from Alexandre Tharaud and friends with child narrators on this fifth instalment of Naxos's chamber-music series.

Vous connaissez Vialatte ? Vous aimez ? Ces questions n'en étaient pas ; elles n'en sont toujours pas ; elles font partie d'un mot de passe. Une réponse affirmative permet de classer l'interlocuteur. Si l'on aime Vialatte, c'est qu'on pratique une région de la littérature qui va de Morand à Giraudoux. Encore faut-il se méfier du diagnostic car on peut tomber sur un amateur de Vialatte qui déteste Morand et qui raffole d'Audiberti où, ce qui est le plus grave mais existe, sur un fervent de Kafka qui a intégré Vialatte à sa religion…