Here is an American piano duo in familiar French four-hand repertoire.
The performances are highly proficient from a technical point
of view. A pianist I know talks about the “four-hand syndrome”,
by which she means that ensemble between the two players is
frequently imperfect. There are only a very few examples of
this in this recital. But for this listener these performances
crucially lack the very elements that make these pieces attractive.
Much of Debussy’s Petite Suite is just too loud, for
example. The fourth movement, “Ballet”, is peppered with piano
and pianissimo markings, but you really wouldn’t know
it from this performance. Nor does the phrasing seem very affectionate
or tender. Bizet’s piece fares better, but then the music is
more robust and can stand this kind of approach. Even so, the
final movement, “Bal”, is boisterous and high-spirited as it
should be, but where is the fun? I’ve heard performances of
Ravel’s Mother Goose that have brought out more tenderness
than is in evidence here. The transformation of the Beast in
the fourth piece, for example, is rather glossed over. But the
work is admirably paced, and the beautiful final movement, in
particular, is perfectly judged and very successful. It’s a
pleasure to find Debussy’s Six Epigraphes Antiques (not
“Epigraphs” as the booklet has it) included in the programme.
This work, most of which was probably composed well before 1914,
is rather more challenging for the listener than the rest of
the collection, and receives a successful performance here.
The more brilliant moments work particularly well, but I have
never seen the score, so my feelings that, once again, the playing
is often a notch or two above the marked dynamics can only be
a suspicion. What is certain is that there is more fun in the
final piece, a thank you to the morning rain, than these players
find. The first movement of Fauré’s Dolly is rhythmically
rigid and matter of fact. Where is the soft, caressing quality
the music demands? It is a lullaby, after all.
I’m sorry not to react more positively to these performances,
but there is no doubt that Laurence Fromentin and Dominique
Plancard, in an almost identical programme on EMI, bring more
tenderness, affection and fun to these pieces. To complicate
matters, the title of the disc makes plain that the unique feature
of this issue is the instrument, a beautifully restored Erard
of 1877. Authentic it is, then, though it should be pointed
out that this particular piano, described as an “extra-grand
modèle de concert” is probably not the kind of thing the composers
would have had next to their desks. One is immediately struck
by the very particular sound, but the ear soon adjusts. Others,
perhaps more committed to authenticity for its own sake than
I am, will judge for themselves, but I am sceptical about the
booklet annotator’s claim that this instrument “offers wonderful
insights into the colors and expressive demands of the music
by bringing the listener into the original sound world of the
composers.” And then I can’t help thinking, just as I sometimes
do about Bach and the trumpet – near-heresy this, hardly to
be spoken out loud – that authentic though it be, how these
composers would have been thrilled to hear their music on a
modern piano!
William Hedley
French four-hand piano music on a French piano of the period. I’m sorry not to react more positively to these performances.