Will Graver

The first CD here is generously filled and contains a valuable novelty in the Magnard Violin Sonata, which may well tempt collectors already possessing a good version of the Franck. In the first movement of the latter, where the marking is Allegretto ben moderato, Augustin Dumay and Jean-Philippe Collard create a feeling of serenity at the start not only tonally but also by a tempo of about dotted crotchet = 48, but fine though the playing is, I think the ben moderato has been interpreted too freely here.