Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Piano concerto no. 1 in E minor, op. 11 (1830, arr. for piano and string quintet) [40:18]
Piano concerto no. 2 in F minor, op. 21 (1829, arr. for piano and string quintet) [34:46]
Emmanuel Despax (piano)
Chineke! Chamber Ensemble
rec. 7-9 May 2021, The Menuhin Hall, Surrey, UK
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD700 [75:09]
To judge from their representation on disc, the chamber versions of Chopin’s two piano concertos, arranged for piano, string quartet and double bass, appear to have gained something of a following. The 1996 world-premiere recording by Fumiko Shiraga/the Yggdrasil Quartet/Jan-Inge Haukås (BIS CD-847) was followed just a couple of years later by another, albeit of only the E minor concerto, from Jean-Marc Luisada/the Talich Quartet/Benjamin Berlioz (RCA Red Seal 74321 632112 or BMG France/RCA Red Seal 74321 886782). Edward Auer/the Shanghai String Quartet/Peter Lloyd recorded both concertos in 2010 (Culture-Demain Recordings, no catalogue number) and, five years later, a performance by Jean-Maurice Weder and players from the Berliner Camerata was released on Oehms Classics OC 1831.
Each of those four discs was very favourably reviewed on these pages. My colleague John Leeman considered the driven, muscular Shiraga performances “revelatory… so right… first class”, while Don Satz rated Luisada’s somewhat more refined account of the E minor concerto “outstanding”. Of the other two sets of performances, both comfortably occupying an interpretative middle-ground between their predecessors, I myself considered that the Auer recordings were “technically extremely assured and very enjoyable”, while Weder’s were “expertly executed… [and] captured in state-of-the-art sound quality”.
Joining them now are new accounts of both concertos from pianist Emmanuel Despax and Chineke! Chamber Ensemble musicians Julian Gil Rodriguez (violin), Juan Manuel Gonzalez Hernandez (violin), Clifton Harrison (viola), Ashok Klouda (cello) and Chineke!’s founder Chi-chi Nwanoku who takes on the double bass part.
Although Emmanuel Despax’s name has previously featured, as far as I can discover, only a couple of times on MusicWeb’s pages, on both occasions the response from our contributors was distinctly positive. Reviewing Hyperion’s release of accounts of concertos (CDA 68229) by Hans Bronsart and Anton Urspruch in 2018, Jim Westhead considered him a “truly virtuoso soloist”. Meanwhile, it was Despax’s approach to both slow movements in the same repertoire that particularly impressed Stuart Sillitoe. Re-reading my colleagues’ reviews reinforces my own impressions of a wide-ranging pianistic talent, well equipped to respond to the varied challenges that the ambitious tyro Chopin threw out to would-be executants of these pieces.
Perhaps the most immediately striking feature of the new Signum disc is the muscularity of Despax’s playing. It’s true, admittedly, that a piano’s impact will ipso facto feel more substantial when pitted in a concerto against five string players rather than against the forces of a symphony orchestra in full-blown Romantic mode. Nevertheless, Bryce Morrison’s booklet note is absolutely spot-on when it characterises Despax’s pianism as “almost epic [in] size and grandeur”. I wager, for instance, that you will not fail to be struck by the soloist’s commandingly magisterial entry in the opening movement of the first concerto, a dramatic and stridently assertive response to the Chineke! players’ finely modelled account of the “orchestral” introduction. As Stuart’s review suggested, however, this particular soloist is by no means a one-trick pony, for he is equally adept at producing passages characterised by the utmost poetry and delicacy – most notably, on this occasion, in the F minor concerto’s larghetto.
Of course, in the chamber versions of Chopin’s concertos the highly exposed contributions of the five string players has to be equally top-notch. In fact, all the recordings mentioned in this review exhibit well-nigh invariably impeccable balance and integration among the strings, regardless of whether they are an existing quartet that’s been augmented by a co-opted double bass (as in the BIS, RCA and Culture-Demain releases) or five players plucked from larger chamber bodies who might be assumed to have become used to playing together on a regular and intimate basis (Oehms Classics and now Signum).
Thus, along with his pianistic rivals, Despax proves fortunate in his musical partners. Let’s demonstrate that point by briefly examining the first concerto’s opening four minutes or so (3:54 in this recording) which serve both to introduce the movement’s thematic material and to prepare for the piano’s first entry. Three of the five performances – those from the Yggdrasil, Shanghai and Berlin Camerata players – adopt quite similar approaches at that point, driving the music powerfully onwards towards that four-minute mark. In fact, the BIS recording emphasises that propulsive energy even further, with the Yggdrasils and their double bassist augmented by Fumiko Shiraga’s piano from the very outset of the piece, thereby adding a uniquely magisterial timbre to the instrumental balance.
The Talich and Chineke! players, on the other hand, choose at that point to put slightly greater emphasis on the music’s delicacy and sensitivity, with each ensemble painstakingly and successfully distinguishing the individuality of the various string parts to quite felicitous effect. Both sound like true chamber ensembles, so that the eventual and dramatic entry of the piano makes even more of an impact than usual. Such accomplished and delightful playing forced at least this particular listener to pay greater than usual attention to music that can sometimes seem little more than a lengthy introduction to the piano-enriched score to come. And although, ultimately, it’s the Czechs who, I think, take the palm in this particular respect, the Chineke! players are certainly not far behind them.
This is, then, a quite delightful and distinguished release with an individual character of its own. It has been expertly recorded, moreover, in first-rate sound. While, as we’ve noted, the chamber versions of the Chopin concertos have done rather well on CD over the years, the new disc can hold its own with any of the others and will certainly not disappoint anyone who buys it.
Rob Maynard
