For too long Cécile Chaminade’s
charming, enchanting music lay forgotten,
languishing below the musical radar because
of two unforgivable sins. First, she composed
only slight, tuneful and undemanding salon
pieces and, second, she was a woman. Therefore,
in the eyes of the music establishment
she was beyond the pale; most dictionaries
and books, either ignoring her existence
or including only the briefest, supercilious
entries.
Now through this recording originally
released by Hyperion in 1991 we have the
opportunity of assessing the undeniable
worth of these exquisitely crafted little
compositions. In addition there are two
other volumes in the Hyperion series as
well as recordings like Anne Sofie von
Otter’s 2001 recital of Chaminade songs
accompanied by Bengt Forsberg on DG 471
331-2. The same disc also includes five
pieces for violin and piano.
Chaminade, born in Paris, was something
of a musical prodigy, writing sacred music
at the age of eight. Bizet, no less, noted
her talent and advised her parents to
ensure she had a formal musical education.
But of course women were not allowed into
the Paris Conservatoire; however, she
was able to study piano with Le Couppey
and with Savard for counterpoint, harmony
and fugue and violin under Martin Marsick,
a pupil of Joachim, plus composition with
Benjamin Godard.
During her long life - she died in Monte
Carlo in 1944 - Chaminade produced some
350 works including a comic opera, a ballet,
a choral symphony (Les amazons),
chamber and orchestral music and about
one hundred songs. But the area in which
she excelled and was the most productive
was the short lyric piano piece, many
of which became very popular bringing
her considerable success and fame in France
Britain and the USA.
As I listen to a CD, I habitually mark
numbers that particularly impress me for
comment in my review. On this occasion
I was so charmed, that I found that I
had marked practically every one of its
nineteen pieces. So I will just restrict
myself to mentioning just a half dozen
or so.
The best known of this set is probably
Automne. Conceived in the Romantic
etude tradition of Chopin and Liszt with
something, too, of an early Fauré
nocturne, this gem at nearly seven minutes,
the most substantial of all the numbers
here, is beautifully evocative of autumnal
serenity and melancholic nostalgia but
not without a central stormy turbulence.
I was attracted to the three Études:
the Étude mélodique
has a most disarming Schumann-like tune
while the Étude pathétique
is correspondingly passionate, vehement
even. The Étude scholastique
is hardly academic, more of a lampoon
of the strict routines demanded by the
conservatories; written in the Baroque
style, the piece is quite a brilliant
toccata with its fast triplets giving
it the feel of a gigue. There are hints
of Brahms and Elgar. Pêcheurs
de nuit (‘Fishermen at night’) is
another imposing piece. Barcarolle-like
it has a sense of the sinister and the
tragic as well a heroic swagger. Two lovely
pieces Romance in D and Solitude,
the second of Chaminade’s Poèmes
provençales, and reminiscent
of material used by Poulenc, are redolent
of sweet melancholy.
Norman Demuth , in his study of French
piano music was one of the few commentators
who did have something of value to say
about Chaminade, "she was nearly
a genius in that she knew exactly what
and how to write for pianists of moderate
ability ... we wish every writer for the
piano had her innate gifts and could be
equally musicianly in their own ways".
But of Elévation (‘Exaltation’)
he was scathing, calling it ‘dreadful’.
Surely a rather harsh and dismissive judgement
based on the evidence of the delicacy
and refinement of Peter Jacobs’s reading
which reveals a charming and innocent
little confection.
But I am being carried away, mentioning
well over those half dozen pieces, and
I must also mention L’Ondine the
little tone picture of the water nymph,
a limpid and rippling enchantment.
An undemanding and tuneful collection
that will enchant all but the strictest
classicists and the hardest-hearted.
Ian Lace
Peter Jacobs (piano) 
for
details
