Debussy Chamber Music

Grumiaux’s elevated intellectual profile is put to exalted use in the Debussy Sonata. He has a quicksilver response to the music’s twists and turns and an alertness to the necessary momentum in the first movement. He is thus forward moving but flexible with a fast vibrato and multi variegated tonal response at once apposite and unostentatious. Listen at 2.15 to about as extravagant a portamento as he ever made on disc. If you want to hear fluent and incisive duo playing listen to Grumiaux and Hajdu in the Intermède where understanding of motivic details and larger structure reigns supreme.

For the first time, this collection brings together the complete woodwind chamber music of France's leading composers in the medium: Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Poulenc. In a set which evinces the now familiar Cala hallmark of creatively combining established treasures with enticing discoveries, including here four world première recordings. Volume One presents the works of Debussy and Saint-Saëns and Volume Two those of Ravel and Poulenc. Each volume contains two full-length CDs (well over two hours of music) for the price of one.

Maria João Pires - Complete Chamber Music Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon (2016) {12CD Set}
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© 2016 Deutsche Grammophon | 0289 479 5964 9
Classsical / Chamber Music / Piano

Chamber music has always formed the heart of Maria João Pires’s musicianship. Indeed, she has often commented that she is happier working with others than performing on her own. “Not sharing a stage is very difficult for me,” she once remarked (in an interview for ArtsJournal in 2012) “You are apart from the group, apart from community, apart from everything. You become different and special. And, if you become different and special, you’re alone.”

This 33-CD set stands as the most complete collection of recordings of Debussy’s music ever made: it comprises all his known works, including four pieces in world premiere recordings which were made especially for this edition. Compiled in collaboration with renowned Debussy expert Denis Herlin (responsible for several critical editions of Debussy’s music for Durand, the composer’s publisher), the box comprises recordings carefully chosen for their artistic quality and their authenticity of spirit. They span more than a century, even including recordings made by Debussy himself – he was a superb pianist. Many other distinguished names are among the performers, including a suitably impressive contingent from France.

Jacques Ibert - Complete Chamber Music (1996) {2CD Set, Brilliant Classics 6486 rel 2006}
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© 1996, 2006 Brilliant Classics | 6486
Classical / Early 20th Century / Chamber Music

Jacques Ibert (1890 - 1962) was a unique figure in 20th century France. In his long life he was influenced by the various musical styles, from the 'impressionists' Debussy and Ravel, through the neoclassicism of Satie and the Groupe des Six, to later more expressionistic composers. But foremost he was himself, and he wrote in a vivid, spiritual and often humorous style, in which his Gallic Esprit always shone forth. This set contains his complete chamber music output, for such diverse instruments al harp, guitar, flute, cello, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, harpsichord and trumpet.

Fragoso’s music, influenced by Fauré and Debussy, shows a strong individual voice, intimate, lyrical and original. His complete output of chamber music is represented on this recording. Performed by excellent Portuguese soloists. New recording, world premieres! The death of António Fragoso (1897–1918) at the age of 21 robbed the Iberian Peninsula of a composer of great potential, the second within a century, following the Spaniard Juan Arriaga who died at the age of 20 in 1826, having displayed extraordinary promise.

Louis Vierne - La Musique de Chambre Intégrale - The Chamber Music Complete Recording (1993) {2CD Set Timpani 2C2019}
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© 1993 Timpani | 2C2019
Classical / Chamber Music / Early 20th Century / Post-Romantic

Born blind, Vierne partially regained sight at age six. Obvious talent was rewarded with piano and solfège studies, to which were added harmony, violin, and a general course when he entered the Institution National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris in 1880. There he was befriended by César Franck who, from 1886, gave him private tuition in harmony while including Vierne in his organ class at the Paris Conservatoire. The lessons of the master were not lost on him – Franck possessed perhaps the richest harmonic palette in Western music and Vierne effortlessly absorbed many of its features. Vierne entered the Conservatoire as a full-time student in 1890. Franck died in November, succeeded by Charles-Marie Widor as professor of organ.

Alkan was counted in Busoni's pantheon of five romantics alongside Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. Brahms and Schumann are the references in the euphoric Grand Duo Concertant - nothing short of a 20 or so minute Sonata in three turbulent movements. This is a work of diving romance and if Alkan had stopped in the style of the first movement then we would have been able to 'place' Alkan. Instead we get a second movement that clamours in bass heavy capering for all the world like a picture of a Black Sabbath. As if to make ‘amends’ the finale is back to the helter-skelter tumble of vivacity we find in the first movement. This euphoria carries over into the Cello Sonata which is in four classically well-tailored movements. Alkan's originality or eccentricity (take your pick) returns for the Adagio which is part sentimental and part affecting. This perhaps offers a parallel with Joseph Holbrooke's chamber works in which sublime ideas and treatment suddenly find themselves up against kitsch music hall ditties. A wild saltarello with grand manner Hungarian gestures from the piano round out the picture.