Lavinia Meijer is back on track. My favourite living harpist, Meijer has
an immaculate touch, great interpretive skill and a predilection for
interesting repertoire. Now she turns to a selection of French
impressionists, a sort of “Greatest Hits” album .... and it’s fantastic.
The album kicks off with “Clair de lune”. That should tell you what
Meijer’s about, especially when you factor in just how tasteful and
beautiful the performance is. It’s perfectly paced, too: not too fast, not
too slow, sounding just right on harp. Then we move into Ravel’s
Introduction and Allegro with fantastic support from the Amsterdam
Sinfonietta and Candida Thompson. You probably know them from their own
great series of albums, on Meijer’s former label, Channel Classics. This,
and Debussy’s
Danses for harp and string orchestra, are the
highlights of the disc. These are such great performers: their affinity with
the music is absolute, and their collaboration is one of equals. Also, the
separate recording session resulted in slightly more open, resonant
sound.
Satie’s first
Gymnopédie is given a very, very slow reading,
enough that the 1-2 rhythm started to get on my nerves. This might be the
first time I’ve disliked a Meijer interpretation. Not to worry: the
Gnossienes are back to her usual extremely high standards and
they’re a treat.
Things do take a turn toward “pops”. The album has nearly fifteen minutes
of music from Yann Tiersen’s
Amélie soundtrack, for fans of the
cult 2001 comedy. A couple of these excerpts are very enjoyable, especially
the encore “Sur le fil”, but it’s clear Tiersen is not exactly on the same
level as Debussy or Ravel.
Amélie’s Waltz, for instance, starts off
as an uncanny Satie impression before falling into the sort of predictable
melodic and harmonic progressions that are a hallmark of movie music. Part
of me wants to give Meijer and Sony credit, for giving Tiersen a chance but
part of me thinks this was a cynical plan to get more radio play. I don’t
know.
Lavinia Meijer’s first four albums, for Channel Classics, are all truly
great. In those, she ranged far and wide for cool music to record, from the
French tradition (
Pierné, Ibert) to names known only to harpists (Salzedo) to
modern voices from around the globe (
Isang Yun, Takemitsu, Britten (Recording of the Month),
Glass). Then she signed to Sony and produced an
album devoted to easy-listening dreck-peddler Ludovico Einaudi. I mention
this because
my review was cruelly harsh, to put it politely.
May this new review put me back in the good graces of the Lavinia Meijer Fan
Club. She does well by Debussy, Ravel, and (mostly) Satie here, and gives us
a fair chance to decide if we like Yann Tiersen’s music when it’s not
attached to a movie. Overall it’s a very enjoyable release, especially if
you love this repertoire or you need a disc for quiet reading, studying or
painting.
Also, it’s a sheer joy to hear Meijer work with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta
on the chamber and small-orchestra pieces. They should do a whole CD of harp
concertos together. If Sony needs a guaranteed pops hit to anchor the
programme, why not Joaquín Rodrigo’s own arrangement of the
Concierto de
Aranjuez? Surround that with Alwyn’s
Lyra Angelica, Brazilian
composer Radamés Gnattali’s chamber concerto, and a piece by a Frenchman
like Caplet or Milhaud, and you have an album I’d love to hear.
By the way, this disc comes with a very cool booklet. It also functions as
an art gallery, with paintings by Jeroen Krabbé matched to each composer,
and selected poems by Dutch writers.
Brian Reinhart
Track-List
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Clair de lune [4:43]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Introduction et Allegro [10:06]
Erik SATIE (1866-1925)
Gymnopédie No. 1 [3:42]
Yann TIERSEN (b.1970)
Comptine d’un autre été: L’Après-midi [2:10]
La Valse des monstres [3:39]
Debussy
La Fille aux cheveux de lin [2:45]
Tiersen
La Valse d’Amélie [2:43]
Satie
Gnossiennes Nos. 1-3 and 5 [13:02]
Debussy
Bruyères [3:11]
Danses pour harpe et orchestra [9:37]
Tiersen
Sur le fil [4:25]
