Arthur Honegger - Piano Works (Jean-François Antonioli)

Information

Composer: Arthur Honegger

• Toccata et variations
• Sept Pièces brèves
• Prélude, Arioso et Fughette
• Deux Esquisses (en notation Obouhov)
• Le Cahier romand
• Trois Pièces
• Sarabande
• Hommage à Roussel
• Berceuse
• Petite pièce en sol
• Scenic railway
• Souvenir de Chopin
• Matamore
• Partita

Jean-François Antonioli, piano

Date: 2008

Label: Timpani

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Review

I first encountered Honegger’s piano music on an old Turnabout LP played by Jürg Vintschger (since reissued on CD but currently unavailable). His was not a complete survey – but then neither is this Timpani release, despite its claim of completeness – though it included most of the major items, such as the Toccata and Variations (1916), Three Pieces (1917), Seven Short Pieces (1919-20) and Prelude, Arioso and Fughetta on the Name of BACH (1932). Antonioli’s new programme covers even more repertoire, mainly several miniatures and the meaty Partita for two pianos (1940), but still omits several published items, such as the suites from Les trois contrepoints (1926-29) and Les aventures du roi Pausole (1930-31), La neige sur Rome (1925) and the Petits airs sur un basse célèbre (1941).

It must be said straight out that Antonioli proves an even more persuasive advocate for this music than was Vintschger. Despite an impressive array of symphonies, quartets and sonatas, Honegger never wrote a large-scale piano sonata or suite which, listening to Antonioli’s superb handling of the torrents of notes in the Toccata or the quasi-symphonic writing in the Three Pieces and Partita, seems a loss. Antonioli’s touch is light and delicate when it needs to be, too, as in the famous Sarabande from Album des Six (1920), Souvenir de Chopin (extracted from a 1946 film score) or the splendid Matamore (from music to Abel Gance’s 1943 film Le Capitaine Fracasse). Be warned, though, the brief Scenic Railway (1937) may disappoint musical trainspotters in its lack of drama. Timpani’s recording is natural and clear, the acoustic neither too close nor overly spacious. Recommended.

-- Guy Rickards

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Arthur Honegger (10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who spent most of his life in France. He studied at the Zürich Conservatory and after 1912 at the Paris Conservatory. After World War I he was associated with a group of young composers known as "Les Six". Honegger was a prolific composer and made notable contributions to opera, ballet, orchestral, choral, chamber and film music. His music is written in a bold and uninhibited musical idiom that combines the harmonic innovations of the French avant-garde with the large forms and massed sonorities of the German tradition.

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Jean-François Antonioli (born 25 February 1959 in Lausanne) is a Swiss pianist, conductor and teacher. He studied with Fausto Zadra at Conservatoire de Lausanne, Pierre Sancan at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna, and Carlo Zecchi in Rome. As a pianist, he has been invited to perform, either solo or with orchestra, in musical centres throughout Europe, Israel and Canada, and has recorded 20 different CDs. From 1993 to 2002 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Timisoara Philharmonic Orchestra. His tireless activities as soloist and conductor have resulted in the premières of works by many composers.

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