Poètes du Piano

Albumbeschreibung

This recital of French piano music -- counting Chopin as an honorary Frenchman -- is the first time Pascal Rogé has recorded any of Chopin's works. It's not that Rogé had ignored Chopin before, just that his recordings focused on the later French composers. Chopin becomes the focal point here, even though Rogé begins with a Fauré nocturne. His graceful way of phrasing in that -- including in the more dramatic middle section -- leads right into Chopin's similarly constructed Nocturne No. 13 in C minor, where Rogé's playing becomes more expansive as the excitement increases and proves that this will not be all dreamy, languid lushness. The same polish and elegance are applied to a Poulenc nocturne, making it successfully fit into the Poetes du Piano program, although more generally Poulenc's piano writing is spikier than that of the other "poets" here. Next Rogé moves on to similar juxtapositions of Ravel's and Chopin's waltzes, then Debussy's etudes and preludes with Chopin's etudes and preludes, and concludes with Chopin's Ballad No. 4, the largest and most dramatic work in the program. The suppleness of technique that underlies his phrasing comes through particularly in the etudes. The consistency in his attention to both touch and phrasing -- almost a little too obvious in Chopin's Prelude in B minor, Op. 28/6 -- is what makes all of the works come together as a greatly enjoyable and satisfying whole. This is a live recording, but there is no sign of an audience until the end of the disc, which is hard to believe given the clarity of the sound.

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