Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)
Complete Piano Works 2: Theme and Variations – Part 1
Maria Stratigou (piano)
rec. 2022, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
Grand Piano GP934 [75]
This is Maria Stratigou’s second release in Grand Piano’s complete survey of the piano music of Louise Farrenc; the first was a double CD containing all of her études (Grand Piano GP912-913 review) and this second volume begins to explore her variation sets. Piano variations formed a large part of her compositional output up until around 1839, a time when she began to concentrate more on orchestral and chamber music. The remaining variations will appear on volumes 4 and 6 of this series.
Farrenc’s natural gifts and piano studies with Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel are all clear in these works and she brings the same imaginative approach to keyboard figuration that she does in her études with grace and elegant charm. Her first set, written when she was around twenty, and seemingly her first published work, is based on a theme by Aristide Farrenc, the flautist and soon-to-be music publisher who she had married three years previously. Like most of the pieces it opens with an introduction before the main theme, a gently lyrical theme in this case and again like most it follows standard practise of the time; several variations, usually increasing in complexity or difficulty, a slow variation, often in the minor key and a fast finale/final variation. It is an enchanting work for her début opus; the variations are light-hearted, especially the spirited second with its flowing right hand over staccato left hand notes and the finale which would have made Czerny proud. The third variation is rather unusual in its rhythmic ambiguity; its syncopated chords and off beat accents belie its outwardly unruffled mood.
The Grandes Variations sur l’air le Premier pas are the longest set on the disc and are a played from the manuscript of a piano and orchestra version which has the orchestral notes in small type; all parts are played here. The dramatic introduction is for orchestra and as is often the case, the theme when it appears seems rather twee in comparison – this dramatic contrast was very common in early 19th Century variations and Ernö Dohnányi hammed it up gloriously in his variations on a nursery theme nearly a century after the heyday of the genre. The variations here are all separated by orchestral interludes but otherwise follow the same kind of path; skipping and leaping notes in the first couple of variations, runs divided between left and right hand and a triplet variation. The slow variation is quite extended and introduces the grand finale with a dazzling cadenza that is somewhat reminiscent of figuration in the finale of Chopin’s F minor piano concerto. Farrenc’s op.5 is based on a more familiar theme, Rossini’s Non piú mesta accanto al fuoco from La Cenerentola, an aria that also inspired variations for piano by Henri Herz and Thomas Bloomer Phipps, the latter gloriously forgettable, as well as several for guitar, at least two for violin and Chopin’s variations for flute. Like Herz she transposes the theme to C major from the E major original though the lyrical introduction is in C minor. For all their technical challenges Farrenc doesn’t follow the high energy, high virtuosity route that Herz does in his more familiar set and the lilting finale is more relaxed. The variations on Ma tendre musette are generally more melancholy though the third varition is a dazzling, whirling waltz. The reflective fourth variation could almost be a short Mozart slow movement and the finale is energetic but brief. The Air Suisse Varié is very different in mood, high spirited and playful but it is the shimmering penultimate variation that steals the show here with its double notes reminding one of Chopin’s G sharp minor etude.
George Onslow’s opera le Colporteur premiered in Paris in 1827 and Farrenc’s variations were published in Paris and Bonn the following year. I have found very little about the opera and I think it still awaits a recording – I imagine it and his other three operas will probably go on ‘awaiting’. The theme is the rondo C’est la Fête du village from this opera about a pedler and it is an attractive little tune in its own right. Notable here is the second variation which eschews virtuosity and we hear instead a delicate contrapuntal piece; Farrenc employs similarly sparse resources for the poignant slow variation. The finale, a dance in triple time, has more varied figuration than in other sets and puts on a little more speed for the last few bars. The last three sets of variations exist only in manuscript and are undated. There are no surprises in any of these and all come in at under four minutes. The Theme and Variations in G major is perhaps my favourite of these with its G & S like theme – along with hints of merrily we roll along.
Everything that I said about Stratigou’s playing in the first volume stands true for this edition; she is clean fingered and stylish bringing effortless elegance, dramatic grandeur and easy virtuosity to Farrenc’s music. Grand Piano and Ms Stratigou are doing sterling service on behalf of Louise Farrenc and it is good to find these works collected together in such a sensible manner though for casual listening it may be better to dip into this disc rather than taking it all in in one go. Roll on volume three.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
Variations Brilliantes sur un thème d’Aristide Farrenc Op.2 (c.1824)
Grandes Variations sur l’air le Premier pas Op.4 (1824)
Variations Brilliantes sur un thème (air) de La Cenerentola de Rossini Op.5 (c.1829)
Variations sur l’air favori O ma tendre Musette! Op.6 (c.1828)
Air Suisse Varié Op.7 (c.1832)
Variations Brilliantes sur un thème du Colporteur de G. Onslow Op.10 (c.1828)
Adieux à la Suisse. Thème de Bruguière, varié
Theme and Variations in F major
Theme and Variations in G major
