Eric Le Sage

The works for cello and piano of Gabriel Fauré stemmed primarily from the antipodes of his career. Early on, he primarily composed miniatures, though the well-known Op. 24 Elegie was intended to be a movement of a sonata that never came to pass. The works from near the end of his life -- especially the two complete sonatas -- both feature surprisingly spirited, bright, eager moments despite the composer's failing health and hearing. Pianist Eric le Sage is joined by cellist François Salque on this impressive Alpha album. The sound quality achieved by le Sage, Salque, and the recording engineers at Alpha is what truly sets this album apart from others like it. The overall recorded sound quality is dry, crisp, close, and possessing a minimum of reverb. Even a bit more of any of these qualities and the disc would be sterile and uninteresting. But in their present combination, the outcome is one of exceptional clarity and focus, one in which listeners are transported to the very heart of the music. Salque and le Sage play with equal measures of austerity and simplicity, letting Fauré's sometimes overlooked sonatas speak to the openness and freedom achieved by the composer late in his career. The disc ends with a likewise enjoyable and gripping performance of the Op. 120 Trio with the addition of clarinetist Paul Meyer. As Vol. 1 of what is hopefully a survey of Fauré's complete chamber music, this installment is definitely worth checking out. © TiVo

With this new series entitled ‘Salon de musique’, Alpha presents recordings made by artists who have enlivened the Festival of Salon de Provence for some years now: the pianist Eric le Sage, who has made many recordings for Alpha, the clarinettist Paul Meyer etc… with cellist Claudio Bohórquez, they have now put two Beethoven trios on disc. By 1798, the year Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Trio for piano, clarinet and cello op.11, he was already well-known in Vienna as a remarkable improviser and an ambitious young composer. the piece was clearly aimed at the enlightened aristocracy, as well as competent musical amateurs. This did not prevent the critics, though universally positive, from judging the score to be over-complex in places. Dedicated to the Empress Marie-Theresa of Austria, the Septet was published in 1802 by Hofmeister, and on being well-received it was then rearranged for various combinations. Beethoven himself made a version for clarinet, cello and piano, op.38 in E Flat major – the one recorded here. © Alpha Classics

Better known for his recordings of the music of Robert Schumann and Gabriel Fauré, pianist Eric le Sage ventures into less accustomed repertoire with this Alpha disc of the last three piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven. These pieces, like others among Beethoven's late masterworks, have an ineffable aura of sanctity about them, and performers approach them with a sense of awe, as well as a solid backlist of recordings that lead up to them. Le Sage doesn't have a discography of Beethoven sonatas, or even much Beethoven in his catalog at all, so his offering of the Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, the Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110, and the Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, may come as a surprise, or even an affront to some sensibilities. Yet he plays with the transparent touch and calm demeanor of many a master, and even though he isn't likely to be credited with a major achievement until he records the rest of the sonatas, these performances are equal in technique, physical prowess, and emotional power to many other fine renditions. The sense of transcendence that unifies these three sonatas is evident in le Sage's controlled interpretations, and he lends the music a clarity that feels a little rarefied and otherworldly, especially in the closing variations of Op. 111. On the strength of these exceptional performances, one hopes le Sage has a complete Beethoven cycle in store and that Alpha will release it soon. © TiVo

Eric le Sage made his reputation with slyly sentimental Poulenc and passionately poetic Schumann recordings, and this 2008 two-disc Schumann set can only enhance and enlarge his reputation. Featuring the well-known G minor Sonata, the less well-known Novelletten and Nachtstücke, and the much less well-known Drei Phantasiestücke, Vier Märsche, and Gesänge der Frühe, these discs document not so much the pianist's growth as a musician, but his deepening love for the music. As before in this series, le Sage's touch is light but firm with a bright treble and a resounding bass, his technique is crisp and rapid with amazing dexterity coupled to tremendous strength, and his interpretations go right to the heart of the great German Romantic's music. In the G minor Sonata, le Sage not only takes seriously the opening movement's extreme tempo marking -- So rasch wie möglich (As fast as possible) -- he executes it perfectly and interprets it brilliantly, bringing out the music's restless yearning through the relentlessness of his tempo. And in movement after movement and in piece after piece, le Sage strikes the right note, catching Schumann's fantastic imagination in the Nachstücke and Phantasiestücke, his boundless energy in the Märsche, his endless tenderness in the Gesänge der Frühe, and his poetic passion in the Novelletten. Recorded as before in the Salle de musique of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, Alpha's digital sound is ideal, placing the listener about 20 feet from the piano in a warmly reverberant hall. Not since Richter has a pianist come this close to the heart of Schumann, and anyone interested in Schumann is urged to hear these discs. © TiVo

With their poetry, their passionate and intimate lyricism, their refined style that gradually reveals hidden depths, the thirteen Nocturnes of Gabriel Fauré are the most significant group of works in his oeuvre for solo piano. Composed over a period of forty-six years (between 1875 and 1821), they bear witness to the composer’s remarkable stylistic evolution. From a form of expression rooted in romanticism, to an aesthetic fully aligned with 20th-century modernity, Fauré can be said to have shaped his musical personality like a sculptor. His Nocturnes are not all of equal importance, but as a whole their diversity and development offer a perfect panorama of his art. Éric Le Sage, one of the French piano school’s main representatives, whose many recordings for Alpha include the complete chamber music of Fauré, here interprets the repertoire closest to his heart. © Alpha Classics

Intimidated by his grandiose predecessors and petrified by expectations, Johannes Brahms hesitated before publishing his First Trio, a masterpiece in Viennese romanticism. Its two 'siblings' composed later would put the finishing touches to meticulous dramaturgy and technique. Pierre Fouchenneret (violin), François Salque (cello) and Éric Le Sage (piano) have recorded here an inspired and powerful album, captured passionately by B Records. © B Records

For Johannes Brahms, the essence and defining feature of chamber music resided in the string quartet, and the form commanded so much respect and rigour from him that he burnt dozens of his first attempts at the genre. This shows how much the three quartets brought together here, and added to quite naturally by the sublime piano quintet, represent the quintessence of that great resident of Vienna. It is a magical climax to this outstanding collection of Brahms’s complete chamber music works released by B Records, still under the auspices of La Belle Saison. © B Records

You can hear right away why Francis Poulenc was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy's favorite living composer. The elegantly light touch, the delicately ironic affection, the subtly affecting coolness: Poulenc was what she would have been had she been a melody and not the wife of an unfaithful husband who was also the President of the United States. In this brightly sparkling disc by pianists Frank Braley and Eric le Sage, with conductor Stéphane Denève directing the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège of the Concerto pour deux pianos et orchestre, the Concerto pour piano et orchestra, and the Aubade pour piano et orchestra, one hears the sophisticated charm, the insouciant wit, the unexpected intimacy, and the ineffable warmth of Poulenc's music at its most dryly moving. The sound RCA and at least five corporate partners have wrapped the performances in is clear, soft, and round. A strangely touching tribute to a marvelous composer. © TiVo