Artalinna, Jean-Charles Hoffelé
Record of the Day
The Pavane, the Tombeau de Couperin, the Trio…
… the Linos Piano Trio brings them together under the idea of dance, and reinterpret the first two in arrangements which are as sensitive as they are brilliant.
From the initial chords of the Trio, the sound of the Érard [piano] plunges us into the world of Montfort-l’Amaury, music of dreams, balcony opening onto the forest, as if Ravel were at the piano; what an illusion! The Trio and the Tombeau de Couperin are from the Great War, the Pavane is from the previous century, but the hues of this Érard, the colourful and elegant sound of the violin (a copy of a Guarneri signed by Peter Greiner), the intimate tone of the magnificent Neapolitan cello of the 1880s, played with such nostalgic poetry by Vladimir Waltham, make one feel as if one were in Ravel’s salon.
The performance is marvellous…
… a little oceanic and therefore a little Faurean (the Modéré, even the Passacaglia, after all the work was conceived in Ciboure, facing the Atlantic), a touch of fantasy animates a fabulous Pantoum carried by the contrasting registers of the Érard, a radiant Final, a marvel which redistributes the cards of an abundant discography (and which to my taste has been dominated until now by the great gesture of Pludermacher, Jarry and Tournus for EMI Classics).
And the arrangements? That of the Pavane is wise, but decidedly well-observed, that of the Tombeau absolutely successful in that it dresses up the version for solo piano without looking at the orchestral version, at least for the movements that the composer chose to orchestrate. The three friends allow themselves liberties, proving that they have understood everything about this Tombeau in which Ravel modestly evokes the dead from the Great War while celebrating the French spirit. Even the difficult Fugue is a success, and listen to the ‘cat’ effects in the Forlane, sonorous nods to L’Enfant et les sortilèges!
Imagination in power, a Ravelian virtue if ever there was one, enchants this disc.
Translated from French.
