[ad_1]
Poulenc: Les chemin de l’amour (Indésens Calliope Information)
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 & others (Deutsche Grammophon)
★★★★☆/★☆☆☆☆
I can’t take heed to Francis Poulenc for lengthy with out imagining a Gitane between my lips and smoke curling out of the corners. There’s an image of him on the duvet of this album, titled ‘Les chemins de l’amour’ (The Methods of Love), which exhibits a person in full-throated laughter, contented together with his lot.
The music carried out right here is from the Forties, not the happiest of a long time, however Poulenc was adept at shutting out headline information. A religious Roman Catholic and untormented gay, he wrote three operas and a ballet however little else on a grand scale – no symphony or concerto, except you depend a glompy factor for organ, timpani and strings dated 1939.
Right here he engages in confidential dialog between violin and piano, cello and piano, and one thing referred to as a ‘pipeau’, which calls to thoughts a medical laboratory. Nowhere does Poulenc harbour darkish ideas. The gamers — violinist Tatiana Samuil, cellist Justus Grimm and pianist David Energetic — maintain it gentle and wistful. The titular ‘Chemins de l’Amour’ is a track Poulenc wrote for an Yvonne Printemps present in December. Who would know Paris was below German occupation? Poulenc saved his window shut.
The pianist Lang Lang, in his newest launch, {couples} an unremarkable live performance recording of the Saint-Saens second concerto with an assortment of bon-bons by numerous French composers, Poulenc notably absent amongst them. Lang Lang speaks little French, and it exhibits.
His studying of the Ravel Pavane has a uniformity of contact that guidelines out emotional subtlety. What you get is giant gestures and little fantasy. A Debussy suite, performed together with his spouse Gina Alice, is louder however no higher at evoking deep feeling. From there it’s all downhill, by Fauré, Delibes, Louise Farrenc, Lily Boulanger, Tailleferre and extra (and even much less).
Lang Lang is true now in that ethical minefield often known as mid-career. He is aware of how he received in however has no clue the place to maneuver ahead. This album is a compass failure on an industrial scale. Irrespective of: You’ll hear these tracks in lodge elevators for the remainder of your life. Lang Lang is the Muzak of our occasions.
To learn extra from Norman Lebrecht, subscribe to Slippedisc.com.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the day by day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig van Every day — classical music and opera in 5 minutes or much less HERE.
.
Norman Lebrecht is likely one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s a daily presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Road Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning towards human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
[ad_2]