Proust, le concert retrouvé

Albumbeschreibung

The application of historical performance ideas to late Romantic music proceeds apace, and what could be more appropriate for the trend than the music in the circles surrounding Marcel Proust, whose writing is so full of musical references? Cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih issued a collection on the BIS label of cello music connected with Proust's salons, and now violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and pianist Tanguy de Williencourt offer this even more specific examination, grandly titled Proust, le concert retrouvé (in English "A Concert at the Time of Proust" is used). As critic Nick Hammond points out (Paris Update, March 24, 2021), the musicians' names themselves "would not look out of place on the guest list of one of the salons described by Proust in his lengthy novel" (The Remembrance of Things Past), and this release represents a fine act of historical imagination. The key is the instruments used: the 1708 "Davidoff" Stradivarius for de Swarte and an 1891 Erard grande for de Williencourt. They perfectly embody the intimate, artistically charged atmosphere these salons must have had, with the purring of the violin matching the rounded, quiet tone of the piano. The program does not exactly reproduce what was played at this salon, held at the Paris Ritz in July of 1907; the plan changed at the last minute due to Fauré's illness, and what is heard here was an original version of the program, which is heavy with Fauré. The Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 13, fares very well here, much better than in larger, more impersonal readings. There are many delightful items among the small individual pieces, such as instrumental transcriptions of songs by Reynaldo Hahn and Couperin's Les barricades mystérieuses, sounding for all the world like late 19th century music. The whole thing has a density of atmosphere that will keep listeners returning for multiple hearings.

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