Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel and Fauré: Chamber Music, Piano Music and Songs

[Mandryka]

What are your favourite records?

Mine would be:


Ravel – Ysaÿe
Fauré (opus 121) – Via Nova
Debussy – Juilliard (Testament)

For the Debussy Quartet, there are too many fun recordings –  Italliano; Tokyo; Orlando. Maybe even The Capet and the Talich. I like the energy and colour of that early Juiliard recording tremendoously.

And some of those groups did good versions of the Ravel too.

For Fauré Op 121, the great recordings seem harder to find. Via Nova seem streets ahead of all others I know for colour, drama, sweetness of tone, balance.

[mjwal]

At the moment I like the Carmina Qt for the Debussy & Ravel string quartets  - coupled with the  Debussy (early work), Ravel & Fauré piano trios done by Rouvier, Kantorow and Müller  (Brilliant). I dig the Capet for the Ravel & Debussy quartets - a very special experience (EMI Références), then I like the Italian (Philips) & Juilliard Qts (1970 CBS LP) too. I cannot quite get a hold on the Fauré String Qt (which I only have with the Parrenin) though I love the piano quartets and quintets, in which latter I actually prefer the older recordings by Hubeau & Via Nova Qt (Erato LP) or the classic Parrenin to the more recent Ortiz & Fine Arts Qt, which I cannot recommend despite its positive reviews.

[snyprrr]

Is the Faure 121/Via Nova the one on Erato (or is it Pierre Verany?)? I haven't heard a nod to this version before. What are the timings?

Herman?

Check out the Faure Thread. Trust me, I caffeinated that one, haha.

I'll match you with the Loewenguth/Vox (with the best Roussel SQ) as the most unbeatablely reliable Faure. I don't necessarily like it the best, but I stand behind it. Also, nothing wrong with Ysaye/Aeon (w/EXCELLENT Magnard!), aaaaaaaaaaand...

everyone's new fav, the Ebene/Virgin (w/DebRav).



I need the DebRav/Italiano cd with the old jewel box, with the red tray and dreary garden/roses pic. ANYONE? I must be this one. RU willing?

I also like the newer Julliard/Sony, with the Dutilleux. Yes,... the word is FUN!



I have Kantarow in the Deb and Lekeu Sonatas, w/Ravel, the other sonata (Denon). Nice recording. There really are too many good recordings of the Deb Sonatas. I usually choose based on discmates (Deb Cello Sonata usually comes w/Britten, Honegger, Poulenc, Prokofiev, DSCH, Carter, Myaskovsky, ... the usual suspects).



My fav of all is the Turovsky/Chandos disc of French Duos for vln/vlc,...Ravel, Honegger, Martinu, Rivier. Besides the whole disc being a delight, the Ravel is most certainly the most Modern thing, deliciously suave and sleek and slithery.



Ultimately, for me, it all boils down to this:

flute, harp, & string quartet



Between 1888-1928, the 'French', whether French, European, or American, certainly revitalized 'chamber music'. The above instrumentation seems to epitomize the lusciousness of this renaissance, which, I think, calcifies into this instrumentation:

clarinet, violin, cello, piano (Messiaen)

which, I think, begins to represent the turn from the pre-war ultra-florid/post-romantic style, to the serial/post-war style. No? Boulez vs. D'Indy?



The thing is, Poulenc didn't write a String Quartet. Milhaud did.

Debussy didn't write a Piano Quintet. Hahn did.

Ravel didn't write a Cello Sonata. Prokofiev did (so to speak).



You see? Unlike Brahms, and such, these composers hopscotched over the received tradition, so, if you want to hear the Poulenc String Quartet, you have to go to Milhaud's SQ No.6 (dedicated to Poulenc, and, for all in tents and purposes, IS the Poulenc SQ (Milhaud knows what he is doing)).

If you want to hear the Ravel Cello Sonata you have to go to,...who? (Guido?)

And so on.

Does this make sense?



I love the French influence on chamber music in the 20th century.



...otherwise, Koechlin and Martinu probably cover all the bases...

[Mandryka]

The title says: "Chamber Music" but the two posts focus on String Quartets: I am confused.

Finally, interesting renderings of Faure's first Piano QUartet and of his Second Piano Quintet, by Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, whose recordings of Faure solo piano music are recommendable.

.

Available here:

http://www.i12.ch/musiqueouverte/index.php/accueil/toutafficher

I will check it out, since I am fond of her Nocturnes recording-- at least for the early nocturnes. Perfumed and exotic playing.

[Herman]

And so on.

Does this make sense?

Of course not

[Herman]

Somehow it seems to me the Quartetto Italiano recording of the Debussy / Ravel Quartets has outlived itself. When you listen to it now, it's pretty obvious that Ravel and especially Debussy were supposed to be the antidote to virtually all other music [edit: at the time]. This was vacation music. Beautiful, but fatally non-urgent.

The Italiano Philips recording used to be the central recommendation. Now I think it's a peripheral recommendation. Beautifully played, but not the way it should be played.

For the Fauré (and the Ravel) I like the Ebene Quartet a lot. For the Debussy the live Ysaye (Wigmore Hall).

Just yesterday I heard a very nice recording of the Ravel Violin / Cello sonata by the Capuçon brothers.

[Sergeant Rock]

For the Ravel and Debussy Quartets I own versions by the Italiano, Carmina, Ebène and Alban Berg. I know the Berg makes the music sound as if you are sitting in a Viennese café, eating Torte, listening to fin de siècle music composed by Hans Schnitzengruben and Karl-Heinz Baumschlager--but theirs is my favorite version of the French fraternal twins.

Sarge

[Dancing Divertimentian]

A nice one-stop for Ravel's chamber music is this disc:





Although in all honesty it's for the piano trio and the sonata for violin and cello that this disc is invaluable, overshadowing the other works on account of the inclusion of Gautier Capuçon's glorious cello. But the rest ain't chopped liver, however, they just don't include Gautier's cello.

[kishnevi]

A nice one-stop for Ravel's chamber music is this disc:





Although in all honesty it's for the piano trio and the sonata for violin and cello that this disc is invaluable, overshadowing the other works on account of the inclusion of Gautier Capuçon's glorious cello. But the rest ain't chopped liver, however, they just don't include Gautier's cello.

That CD was my first encounter with les freres Capucon.  It has always been a source of somewhat juvenile amusement for me to see that the taller brother is the violinist, and the shorter brother is the cellist;  there is something a trifle absurd in the arrangement.

Passing on to other recordings:


I'd like to say it's a good recording, but in honesty I can't remember how it sounds, which probably means I wasn't too impressed with it the last time I listened to it.  Will remedy that lack of memory tomorrow, with a little luck.

[mjwal]

I don't know why toucan was confused, since every discussion has to start somewhere, and mine picked up on the string quartets and added the piano quartets & quintets. I will come out and say that of all this music, I like best the Debussy Violin Sonata and his Sonata for flute viola & harp, the Ravel Introduction & Allegro, Violin Sonata and Piano Trio. I do not possess enough recordings of most of these to confidently recommend particular performances. For the Debussy violin sonata I love the Thibaud, Neveu and Ferras recordings. The Szigeti recordings of the Debussy w/Bartók and Ravel w/Bussotti are sui generis, among my favorite recordings of anything. As regretful mention has been made of a non-existent Debussy piano quintet, I will recall Caplet's Conte Fantastique, based on Poe, for harp and string quartet (Debussy wrote an unfinished opera based on "The Fall of the House of Usher"), très fin de siècle.

[Drasko]

Ravel
Quartet - my favorite is old Galimir Quartet Vienna, occasionally also like Hagens with their custom sharpness and aggression, Ebene I'm still processing, they can get very slow at times.
Piano Trio - like very much older 70s recording by Rouvier-Kantorow-Muller on Erato. From excerpts I've heard on radio new young French Trio Dali on Fuga Libera sounds superb, French critics are going silly over it.
Violin/Cello Duo - Capucon brothers are really good
Violin Sonata - Mullova-K.Labeque then Kantorow-Rouvier, didn't like at all G.Capucon-Braley, sounded horribly labored to me.

Debussy
Quartet - many good ones Julliard (Sony), Italiano, currently I'm listening to Ebene and it's excellent. The one that struck me as anonymous was Talich, same with their Ravel.
Violin Sonata - Ferras-Barbizet
Cello Sonata - Fournier-Poulenc is not bad but I prefer Gendron-Fevrier

I'm shamefully ignorant of Faure's chamber music. Would EMI France box be a good start?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

[Ravel's] Violin Sonata - Mullova-K.Labeque......

I'd really like to hear this one. Mullova's Debussy violin sonata with Anderszewski (on Philips) is superb.

[kishnevi]

Passing on to other recordings:


I'd like to say it's a good recording, but in honesty I can't remember how it sounds, which probably means I wasn't too impressed with it the last time I listened to it.  Will remedy that lack of memory tomorrow, with a little luck.

Having listened to it, I decided to report back with an update: the reason I wasn't impressed with it the first time is because to my ears the performance makes it into salon music.  Even the Ravel, which is rather hard to do.   Pretty much everything that bored me about chamber music: two musicians trotting along making 'nice' music, but nothing more.

[Xenophanes]

My favorite recordings of the Debussy and Ravel Quartets are with the old Fine Arts Quartet (Leonard Sorkin, Abraham Loft, Gerald Stanick, and George Sopkin), on LP, Concert-Disc CS 253.  These performances are full of life and contrast, and the recordings, probably made in the 1960s, are excellent. As far as I know, they were never reissued on CD, more's the pity. I think they are more interesting than even the famous recording by the Quartetto Italiano.

Ravel's Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet is a lovely work.  I followed the Penguin Guide's recommendation and got the recording by the Melos Ensemble with Ossian Ellis, harp, available on London 421 154-2, coupled works by Debussy and Franck. It's very beautiful.

http://www.amazon.com/Franck-Debussy-Sonatas-Introduction-Ensemble/dp/B0000041TM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1274156366&sr=1-1

[Que]

I'm shamefully ignorant of Faure's chamber music. Would EMI France box be a good start?

Absolutely.

Q

[Dancing Divertimentian]

There are earlier versions of both the Debussy and Ravel quartets by the Quartetto Italiano from the mono and early stereo eras respectively (on EMI). The Debussy isn't quite as good as I'd like but the Ravel is masterful, surpassing their later Philips effort by virtue of their greater flexibility and spontaneity. Top rank rendition.





As far as the Debussy I heartily recommend the Casals Quartet on Harmonia Mundi:

[Dancing Divertimentian]

For Debussy's cello sonata this is a very nice disc:

[Mandryka]

I am not so impressed by the Ebène – not in Debussy, nor Ravel nor Fairé nor Haydn. I think they are rough toned , heavy and stiff.

Neither am I so taken by the Ysaÿe's Fauré Op.  121, which is  just a bit too slick and polished for me.

I am rather more positive about the Chilingarian  in Debussy Op.10 especially. Their style is rather different from a tradition set donkeys' years ago ( by the Capet Quartet I suppose ) They are rather more solidly articulated than we expect in Debussy. Still I think their CFP CD is pretty fine, and a useful antidote to my other favourites (like The Juilliard)

Apart from the Juiliard, my favourite Debussy is from The Tokyo – for mood, lyricism, colour, the way the manage the structure, the form: I haven't heard better.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't generated more interest. For more of Debussy's chamber music there's the Chansons de Bilitis for speaker, two flutes, two harps, and celesta. The two discs below are recommended for this piece as well as for the sonata for flute, viola, and harp, and the haunting Syrinx for solo flute.






Unfortunately neither one of these discs is currently in print so any updated recommendations are welcome.

[Peregrine]

Fairly cheap and excellently played: