Darius Milhaud - Chamber Music with Viola (Paul Cortese)

Information

Composer: Darius Milhaud

• Two Pieces for viola and piano (from Saudades do Brasil)
• Sonata No. 1 for viola and piano, Op. 240
• Sonata No. 2 for viola and piano, Op. 244
• Sonatine for viola and cello, Op. 378
• Sonatine for violin and viola, Op. 226
• Suite for violin, viola and piano, Op. 157b
• Quatre Visages for viola and piano, Op. 238

Paul Cortese, viola

Michel Wagemans, piano

Frank Schaffer, cello

Joaquín Palomares, violin

Date: 1998

Label: ASV

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Review

Having valuably recorded nearly all Hindemith’s music for viola (ASV, 9/95, 5/96 and 3/97), Paul Cortese now brings his rich, warm tone and flawless, rock-steady technique to that by Milhaud, Hindemith’s senior by almost exactly three years. Of the seven works presented here, four were written in the 1940s while Milhaud was teaching at Mills College in the USA. Exceptions are the two arrangements from the early Saudades do Brasil, the first languid-alternating-with-vigorous, the second rowdy; the Suite (the viola replacing the original clarinet) from the incidental music to Anouilh’s Voyageur sans bagage, including a jaunty Provencal-flavoured overture, a lyrical “Divertissement” slightly reminiscent of the delightful Concertino de printemps, and an engagingly cheery finale; and the much later sinewy and prickly Sonatine for violin and cello (played here with great finesse), which contains an unexpectedly emotional slow movement.

Of the four works written in California for Germain Prevost, former violist of the Pro Arte Quartet, the violin and viola Sonatine is easy-flowing small-talk, unmemorable save for the energetic final fugue; Quatre Visages, however, reveals Milhaud’s sly wit in its entertaining characterizations of four women – a sunnily contented Californian, a chatterbox from Wisconsin, an earnest creature from Brussels and a vivacious Parisienne. The First Viola Sonata is one of Milhaud’s most endearing works: the composer’s claim that it was based on “18th-century unpublished and anonymous themes” remains cryptic, but a “sour-cream” aura (to adopt the insert-note’s happy phrase) undeniably hovers over the work’s time-travelling; the work has Milhaud indulging to the full his penchant for canonic writing. The Second Sonata is less overtly bracing, and its central Modere is charged with expressive drama (underlining the work’s dedication to the memory of Alphonse Onnou, founder of the Pro Arte Quartet), while the finale is a rough-and-tumble which tempts Michel Wagemans, alert as he is, into being much too loud for his partner – as indeed he sometimes is elsewhere, notably in the early Suite. But, all in all, this disc does Milhaud proud.

-- Lionel Salter

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Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor and teacher. Born in Marseille, he studied under Paul Dukas and Vincent d'Indy at the Paris Conservatory, and was a member of Les Six. A prolific composer, Milhaud wrote more than 400 works, including radio and motion-picture scores, a setting of the Jewish Sabbath Morning Service, 13 symphonies, choral works, the two-piano suite Scaramouche, 18 string quartets and other chamber works. His students include Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis, among others

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Paul Cortese graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph dePasquale. Previously, he pursued his studies at the University of Illinois and the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 1986 he became the leader of the viola section of the Gothenburg Symphony orchestra under their music director Neeme Järvi. Although he has been guest principal viola in over twenty European orchestras, Cortese also dedicates an increasing amount of time to solo and chamber music playing. Since 2023, he is professor of viola, chamber music, and orchestral excerpts at the Forum Musikae in Madrid.

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