Franck; Debussy; Ravel - Music for Violin & Piano (Augustin Dumay; Maria João Pires)

Information

Composer: César Franck; Claude Debussy; Maurice Ravel

• Franck - Violin Sonata in A major
• Debussy - Violin Sonata in G minor, L. 140
• Ravel - Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré
• Ravel - Vocalise-Étude en forme de Habanera
• Ravel - Tzigane

Augustin Dumay, violin

Maria João Pires, piano

Date: 1995

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Review

Duos don’t always have the temperament for the smouldering fires of Franck as well as the sudden whims of Debussy. Dumay and Pires join the select few. They take their time to find Debussy’s opening pulse, but they establish an individual, thoughtful freedom that ‘speaks’ sensuously and assertively. In the finale, they let unexpected passion grow from the central waltz, setting up a brilliant final flourish.

Implicit in the initial, floated phrases of the Franck is a sense of the arduous journey to come. Intensity surges up by degrees towards the soul-torturing struggles at the sonata’s centre, and recedes before a gradual return of serenity and confidence. The gathering excitement has great subtlety and expressive power in this very ‘live’ (though session-made) performance.

They play Ravel with delicacy and panache, but the best Ravel here comes from Tetzlaff and Andsnes, who find a generous range of character from Spanish hardness to a lyrical, irony-free blues and a playful good humour that banishes thoughts of brittleness. A fine, fluent Debussy Sonata even outshines Dumay and Pires in the sly asides of the middle movement, and Nielsen’s dour concentration is delivered with proper grit. They react well to Janácek’s abrupt mood-changes and lyrical feeling, though they don’t quite reach the operatic heights of passion.

— BBC Music Magazine

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César Franck (10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. As an organist he was particularly noted for his skill in improvisation. Franck is considered by many the greatest composer of organ music after Bach. Franck exerted a significant influence on music. He helped to renew and reinvigorate chamber music and developed the use of cyclic form. He became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1872, his pupils included Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Guillaume Lekeu and Henri Duparc.

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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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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire. After leaving the conservatoire, he found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles.

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Augustin Dumay (born 17 January 1949) is a French violinist and conductor. A prodigy, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning its premier prix at age thirteen before launching an international career after being discovered by Herbert von Karajan in 1980. Since then Dumay has performed with leading orchestras worldwide and collaborated with many renowned conductors. He is also an active conductor and educator, serving as Music Director of the Kansai Philharmonic and mentoring young violinists at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. His extensive recordings have received numerous international awards.

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Maria João Pires (born 23 July 1944) is a Portuguese pianist. Born in Lisbon, she gave her first public performance at age four and later studied in Germany under Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. Alongside an extensive concert career, she has recorded for Erato and Deutsche Grammophon. Since the 1970s, she has focused on promoting the social and educational value of art. She founded the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in 1999 and later launched the Partitura Choirs and Workshops in Belgium to encourage collaboration, creativity, and inclusion through music. Pires announced her retirement from performing in 2025. 

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