Vnicholas Mathieu

Schubert: Architect by pianist Mathieu Gaudet is the eighth volume from his remarkable collection The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano of the great Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Schubert revered Beethoven and regarded his piano sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies as models of coherently elaborated architecture, harmonious works with affirmed individuality. This album features the great Sonata in C minor, D. 958 that reminds us of Beethoven. There is the ardent, tragic tone, deployed by the Bonn master in his great masterpieces. The whole work exudes fervour and heroism. Its slow movement is at once exquisitely tender and dramatic, and its first and fourth, especially, display peerless compositional virtuosity.

The dazzling pianist Élisabeth Pion joins Arion Baroque Orchestra conducted by Mathieu Lussier in exploring rarely performed works by French composer Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836). A contemporary of Mozart, this artist fascinates modern listeners both for her trailblazing career and for her contribution to the development of the French piano repertoire.

Burno Mathieu is a pupil of Marie-Claire Alain, and a splendid organist in his own right. Moreover, he chooses the ‘historic’ organ at Nancy, which still has mechanical traction, and provides a very characterful baroque palette of its own, richly displayed in the Cantiléne No.3. But the pedals are very telling, too, and the finale of No. 6 is powerfully spectacular; yet overall, inner detail is remarkably clear. The only small disappointment is the Scherzo of No. 6, where the diabolic rhythmic figure is not as ironically piquant as with Van Oosten.

The dazzling pianist Élisabeth Pion joins Arion Baroque Orchestra conducted by Mathieu Lussier in exploring rarely performed works by French composer Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836). A contemporary of Mozart, this artist fascinates modern listeners both for her trailblazing career and for her contribution to the development of the French piano repertoire.