Resonus Classics

The Fidelio Trio, active across the British Isles, has developed a reputation for playing music of the 20th century, along with lesser-known 19th century music, much of it from France. The music on this release fits these categories: the trios by Chausson and Fauré are not exactly common items, and the pieces by Satie, all arrangements, are unfamiliar even in their original versions. Yet all are involving works in the obviously well-considered and well-rehearsed performances they receive here. The highlight is probably the Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120, of Fauré, probably the most often performed of these pieces. It comes from the 1920s, from the composer's old age, and it has a fine elegiac feel wonderfully captured by these young musicians. Sample the delicate "Andantino" slow movement. The Chausson Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3, by contrast, is an early work, but one that anticipates the dense chromaticism, the energy, and the Wagnerian influences of his later compositions. The miniature dances from Satie's incidental music for his own play Le piège de Méduse (1913) were written for piano but explicitly stated to be adaptable for other small ensembles, and the trio arrangements by John White are certainly reasonable. They are fascinating little snatches of dance: rhythms extracted from traditional forms. The only complaint is that the other arrangement by White, an excerpt from Satie's Messe des pauvres, might have been placed to better effect at the end; the dances end the proceedings rather abruptly. But this is a strong release that will fill some holes in French collections.

Britain's Juice Vocal Ensemble, a pair of sopranos and an alto, is sometimes called experimental, and it's true they're doing things nobody else has done before. But the word gives the impression of something freewheeling, while the experience of listening to the ensemble is likely to bring different terms to mind. "Exacting" would be one: the three women sing harmony -- more often dissonant intervals or the open fourths and fifths of medieval music than the common practice type -- and they achieve impressive precision. And the program reveals research as well as inspiration: the mix of pieces is unique, and it suggests a great deal of thought preparation. There are of course many British vocal groups that sing American music, but the way it is treated here is new. Sample Winter Sky, a song by American country composer Billy Edd Wheeler that was sometimes sung on television by Judy Collins back in the day. One of the members came to it that way, but it's far from a common item. The Juice Vocal Ensemble draws connections among various kinds of folk and traditional material, using their own arrangements; their version of the Coventry Carol is arguably the most haunting one out there. These are augmented by contemporary works that the trio itself has commissioned: they put out a call for works on a winter theme that would fit their a cappella sound, and many of the results are stunning. With the most sparse of resources, the Juice Vocal Ensemble has fashioned a gripping winter-themed release.

A contemporary of Sammartini, Blavet, Gluck and C. P. E. Bach, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770) knew the cruel fate of many composers: famous in life, forgotten post-mortem. A "musician ordinaire" in the court of Louis XV with a salary to match, he made a great name for himself as a virtuoso violinist and composer. But alas, he also developed a reputation for extravagant tastes, and even though he was rich and protected by the court, he soon found himself ruined, driven to alcoholism and finally suicide. His work (or at least that which has survived in published form to our times) only runs to 18 works, all of them instrumental, stretching from 1734 to 1762; a regular at the Concerts Spirituels, he developed a considerable reputation as a symphonist, although his timidity seems to have kept him from the stage. The Six Sonatas in Quartet Op. 12, were published in Paris in 1743. According to the preface, it is a collection of "Amusing and Amorous Conversations between a Transverse Flute, a Bass Viol and Basso Continuo"; the style is not without its nods to the Italian fashions then very much in vogue: hardly surprising, given that Guilleman crossed the Alps several times in order to get to know Italian music better. The Fantasticus ensemble plays expertly on period instruments – who, after all would dare play the works of "minor" baroque composers on modern instruments? – with plenty of fantasy and contrasting moods. © SM/Qobuz