Passages
French Cello Works
Louise Dubin (cello)
Spencer Myer (piano)
Julia Bruskin (cello 2)
rec. 2018/20, Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase, USA
Bridge 9597 [50]
After bringing to CD a previous album with discoveries of cello music by August Franchome for the Delos label Louise Dubin brings her talents to Bridge Records for this recital of cello delights from Franchomme and some other Gallic composers.
This recital features the clear-eyed, unsentimental musicality of Dubin and, when combined with the beautifully judged piano accompaniments of Spencer Myer, the result can be no less than enthralling. The Koechlin Sonata is a beautifully conceived piece. Myer’s accompaniment with its delicately shifting harmonics support Dubin to inspire a moving account of the Sonata’s graceful first movement. The remainder of this work is just as finely achieved.
The recorded sound here is most accomplished; Dubin’s Cello is captured with transparency, especially in the lowest register where the instrument achieves a beautiful vibrancy in Bridge’s exemplary engineering. The piano accompaniment is placed at a slight distance from the cello and adds a sense of atmosphere to this CD’s soundstage.
The recital includes a very interesting piece which is a Franchomme transcription (for cello and piano) of a Chopin Piano Étude that was based on the lovely cello solo that opens Act Two of Bellini’s Norma. Franchomme was the cellist in the orchestra for the Paris premiere of Norma in 1835 at the Théâtre italien; he would have played that solo over a long series of performances. Dubin and Meyers give a beautifully poised account of it.
Dubin is joined by a second cellist, Julia Briskin, for a charming but brief Allegro by Gabriel Fauré, an insistent little nocturne by Franchomme, and the much more serious sound world of the Caprices by Philippe Hersant. However, the highlight of the disc is surely the air and variations entitled Air Irlandais where Dubin’s playing takes off in a barely restrained sense of Joie de vivre and buoyancy.
Mike Parr
Previous review: David Barker
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Contents
Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)
Sonate Pour Violoncelle et Piano, Op. 66
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Allegro Moderato pour deux Violoncelles
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849),
Étude, Op. 25/7 (arr. Auguste Franchomme)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963),
Sérénade (arr. Maurice Gendron)
Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884)
Nocturne, Op. 14/2 pour le Violoncelle avec accompaniment d’un second Violoncelle
Air Irlandais, Variè, pour violoncelle et piano, Op. 25/3
Philippe Hersant (b. 1948)
Caprices pour 2 violoncelles
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano
