Tansman: Works for 2 Pianos

Language available : english

It seems that Alexandre Tansman set down a considerable amount of material for the "two pianos" format, which is only just beginning to be explored: so we should say a big thank you to the Duo d'Accord for having recorded these pearls, written between 1934 and 1961. La Grande ville dates back to when Tansman was thought of as a modern, fashionable composer, while the Fantaisie sur les valses de Strauss has little in common with that period, as, Boulez, Cage, Ligeti and Messiaen had already opened new perspectives. Le Train de nuit [Night Train] 1951, given here in its first-ever recording, seems to sum up all possible influences, from Prokofiev's "motorism" all the way to Ravel's Valse, fox-trot, tango: it is ballet music, but its richness means that it can easily be given in concert – in exactly the same way as Ravel's Valse . The Sonata for Two Pianos was written in 1940 in his exile in Nice, shortly before leaving Europe for a long time; so it's natural that it is written in a rather troubled tone, inexorable, sometimes terrorised (the scherzo is a great moment of "flight forward") – a tone that leaps out of this unique work which has both a classical structure and very modern writing. La Grande ville, for its part, offers some very Parisian moments, and overall a very jazzy sound: La Rue, La Cité ouvrière and Dancing, an adorable ballet which we would love to see on stage. Finally, the Fantaisie sur les valses de Strauss isn't a simple salon piece, but a real fantasia in every sense of the word: the themes are pulled out of shape, superimposed (with such harmonic science and such humour!), and transposed, sometimes to the point of being unrecognisable. What jubilation! The Duo d'Accord is pitch-perfect and absolutely in step throughout this album. © SM/Qobuz