The latest Solstice contribution to the art of pianist Yvonne
Lefébure (1898-1986) is not new to disc, as a small note
on the back of this 3-CD set makes clear. Some items have previously
been released on SOCS 133-35 and 959. The recording dates range
from 1945 in the case of the Henri Martelli Dances to the lengthiest
sequence, which contains the pieces by Rameau, Haydn, Mozart,
Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Bartók and
Dukas: all these were taped in 1971.
Lefébure’s Rameau is represented by the Gavotte
et six doubles and forms part of a largely ‘variation-and-fantasy’
first CD. She was around 73 when she played this 1971 recital
but sounds in fine estate technically. She has never struck
me as always ideally sympathetic in this repertoire, at least
not when one listens to a contemporary of hers such as Marcelle
Meyer. However she characterises the Rameau particularly well
and tends to cement these admirable qualities in some perceptive
Bach playing in the Fantasie and Fugue BWV542. Her choice
of Haydn’s Variations was clearly no accident, given her
programme-building precepts and she plays it imaginatively and
with deft articulation. Her Mozart choices are consonant. The
two Fantasies are strongly argued, not least the dramatically
rolled chords of K396. Her performance of the sonata K457 is
certainly not prettified, but neither is it stolid. There’s
no trace here of the dry, precision-tooled earlier French style
propagated by one of her erstwhile teachers, Marguerite Long.
The brief extracts from the Schubert sonata unfortunately don’t
tell us too much about her affinities.
Another of her teachers was Cortot, who represented a wholly
different aesthetic from that of Marguerite Long. From 1971
again comes a sequence of works associated with Cortot, Chopin’s
Mazurkas and the Barcarolle Op.60. The Mazurkas are perhaps
best represented in her case by Op.17 No.4 which is fluid but
expressive. She has a few trivial technical problems with the
Barcarolle - she had small hands. More consistently impressive
are the pieces by Schumann, Papillons and the Fantaisie,
which show what a tonally and expressively communicative artist
she could be. She shows, as had Cortot before her, real affinities
for Schumann’s music.
Given the relative lack of stretch and the fact that was well
into her eighth decade, one might fear for her Liszt. She plays
the Ballade, La gondola funèebre and Spinnerlied
S 273. She doesn’t sound daunted by the Ballade,
indeed she sounds fearless, if not quite of the first rank of
Lisztians. She captures the sepulchral gondola gloom, and through
clarity of articulation bringsSpinnerlied richly to life.
Dance is a component of this last disc; Bartók’s
Book VI of Mikrokosmos provides opportunities for animated
vitality. Fortunately she is not percussive, and doesn’t
sound metallic or detached in the six short character pieces.
Henri Martelli (1895-1980) wrote his Five Dances Op.47 in 1941.
They were taped here a few years later. These five movements
offer a vivid sequence of stylised neo-classical dances. Some,
like the penultimate dance, a passacaglia, are quite extended
at five minutes in length. They are valuable discoveries and
are played with great concern for balance and movement. Paul
Dukas’s La plainte au loin du faune is an elliptical
piece derived from Debussy. This actually ends the programme
but before it comes a puzzle. This is a 1960 performance of
Henry Barraud’s 1939 Piano Concerto, given live. I can
find no orchestra or conductor’s name in the booklet.
I’ve not searched exhaustively but I suspect Manuel Rosenthal
is the conductor. Perhaps someone can confirm this. Barraud
(1900-97) writes a very breezy, extrovert neo-classical affair
with a theatrical and dramatic slow movement. He has a sense
of humour in the finale too.
This is the only concerto performance. Otherwise it’s
solo Lefébure. Whilst the sound quality is inevitably
variable in the earlier tapes, it’s never less than very
adequate. The performances throughout are a good deal more than
that.
Jonathan Woolf
Track-listing
CD 1
Jean-Philippe RAMEAU (1683-1764)
Gavotte and 6 doubles [6:16]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Fantasy and Fugue BWV 542 [10:45]
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Variations in F major Hob: XVII/6 (1793) [8:48]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756-1791)
Fantasie K 396 [6:11]
Fantasie K475 [10:17]
Sonata for keyboard K457 [14:35]
Variations "Ah ! Vous dirais-je maman" K265 [6:06]
Franz SCHUBERT
Sonata 19 Op. D 958 - extracts only [8:21]
CD 2
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Mazurkas Op. 41/2 [1:56]: Op.17/4 [3:39]: Op.7/5 [2:40]: Op.56/2
[1:30]: Op.7 No.3 [2:18]
Barcarolle Op.60 [8:23]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Papillons Op. 2 (1832) [12:21]
Fantasy Op. 17 (1836) [27:03]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Intermezzo Op. 119/1 (1892) [2:16]: Intermezzo Op. 118/6 (1892)
[4:03]
CD 3
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Ballad S 178 (1853) [12:27]
La gondole fenèbre S 200 (1835) [7:41]
Spinnerlied S 273 [4:47]
Bela BARTOK (1881-1945)
Mikrokosmos - VI. (6 Dances in Bulgarian rhythm) [8:09]
Henry BARRAUD (1900-1997)
Piano Concerto (1939) [19:57]
Henri MARTELLI (1895-1980)
Five Dances Op. 47 (1941) [15:47]
Paul DUKAS (1865-1935)
La plainte au loin du faune [4:04]
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Yvonne Lefébure (piano) 