Debussy; Poulenc - Works for Cello & Piano (Jean-Guihen Queyras; Alexandre Tharaud)

Information

Composer: Claude Debussy; Francis Poulenc

• Debussy - Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano in D minor
• Debussy - Valse "La plus que lente"
• Poulenc - Sonata for Cello and Piano
• Poulenc - Bagatelle in D minor
• Poulenc - Sérénade
• Poulenc - Suite francaise
• Debussy - Scherzo
• Debussy - Intermezzo

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello

Alexandre Tharaud, piano

Date: 2008

Label: harmonia mundi

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Review

Here is yet another superlative recording that some collectors may inadvertently pass over–even chamber music enthusiasts. After all, cello sonatas aren’t everyday fare, and these two are not usually considered to be major works. But they are. Poulenc’s sonata is his biggest and most important solo sonata. Debussy’s says in 10 minutes what would take another composer more than an hour.

Among the shorter works, Poulenc himself made this arrangement of the Suite française, and it’s delightful. The three Debussy pieces are actually surprisingly substantial and not as well known (“La plus que lente” aside) as they might be. The arrangement of pieces on the disc offers delicious points of contrast and an entirely harmonious program that you can listen to at a sitting and still come away wanting more.

The performances are wholly remarkable. Alexandre Tharaud was the guiding force behind Naxos’ excellent series of the complete Poulenc chamber music, and in Jean-Guihen Queyras he has an even better cellist than previously. Interpretively, this newcomer is fractionally more lively and a touch more rhythmically incisive than its otherwise very fine predecessor. The Debussy sonata, its central Sérénade in particular, is little short of amazing. It combines spontaneity and flexibility of tempo with supernaturally accurate ensemble in a way that’s absolutely jaw-dropping. Toss in perfectly warm, ideally balanced engineering, with none of the grunting and groaning that sometimes disfigures HM’s chamber music recordings, and the result is a disc that belongs in every collection, plain and simple.

— David Hurwitz

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Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer who was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His orchestral works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899), Images (1905–1912), and La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include sets of 24 Préludes and 12 Études. Throughout his career Debussy also wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz musician Bill Evans.

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Francis Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. He was one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928), and the Organ Concerto (1938). In addition to his work as a composer, Poulenc was an accomplished pianist. He toured in Europe and America with the baritone Pierre Bernac and the soprano Denise Duval, and made a number of recordings.

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Jean-Guihen Queyras (born 11 March 1967) is a French cellist. He frequently collaborates with musicians including Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov and Alexandre Tharaud, appears with leading orchestras worldwide, and worked with celebrated conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and John Eliot Gardiner. His acclaimed recordings include works by Elgar, Dvořák, Schumann and Bach, recorded exclusively for harmonia mundi. He is also a professor at the University of Music Freiburg and Artistic Director of the Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence festival. Queyras plays on the 1707 "Kaiser" Stradivarius.

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Alexandre Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) is a French pianist. He studied piano with Theodor Paraskivesco at the Conservatoire de Paris, and received advice from Claude Helffer, Leon Fleisher and Nikita Magaloff. Tharaud is a sought-after soloist, appearing with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and is a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious venues. His discography of over 25 solo albums, most of which received major awards, features repertoire ranging from Couperin, Bach and Scarlatti, through Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninov to the major 20th century French composers.

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