Musique Française du 20me Siecle. Jean-Claude Montac, bassoon; Guy Deplus, clarinet; Anne Queffelec, piano. Cybelia CY 6623 (11 bis, rue du Colisee, 75008 Paris, France).
We have come to expect technical artistry and virtuosity from Maurice Allard, having been dazzled by his recordings over the past thirty years or so. Mr. Allard is as well-known in France as a teacher and as a performer, having been Professor of Bassoon at the Paris Conservatory since 1957. He completely remade the system of bassoon instruction in France in his image, and it is interesting now to hear the records that his recent students have been making.
Gilbert Audin made a memorable world premiere recording of the Francaix Concerto a few years ago (also on Cybelia, which seems to be the Buffet house label). Luc Loubry made a bassoon-harp record which was reviewed in this column. We await impatiently records by Sylvain Lhuissier and Paul Riveaux, notable prize-winning products of the Paris Conservatory.
It is in this demanding context that one listens to this debut recording by Jean-Claude Montac, winner of the 1980 Geneva competition and member of the Paris Opera orchestra. Montac performs the Dutilleux Sarabande et Cortege and the Saint-Saëns Sonata (both coincidentally on a record by Eberhard Buschmann reviewed recently in this column). Guy Deplus performs sonatas by Saint-Saens and Poulenc.
The record is a little bit disappointing compared to the recent releases by Audin, Loubry, and Allard that this reviewer has had the pleasure of hearing. Montac has the trademark flashy fingers that are the sine qua non of the Buffet players, and his tone is dark and lovely. However, he plays sharp constantly and has other intonation problems as well. This disc is notable for being the first French recording of the Dutilleux. The Saint-Saëns is a great piece, but I would rather have had him do a Bozza, Tansman, or one of the other notey pieces which fill up the French catalogs. It's also a shame that, on a disc with the great Guy Deplus, that they couldn't have arranged to do something together. The Poulenc Duo would have fit right in.
Rating: 2 1/2 CROWS
Trio Calamus. Tetsuo Kugai, flute; Masahito Tanaka, bassoon; Seiko Sumi, piano. Pavane ADW 7176 (no address).
Masahito Tanaka, the principal bassoonist at the Royal Opera in Brussels, organized this trio with two of his fellow Japanese expatriates to record the chamber music of the nineteenth century.
The trio starts off their record with the Devienne Sonata, a simple but attractive trio which gives all three players a chance to shine, and show off their fingers, Tanaka in particular. The record continues with Jancourt's Fantaisie sur la Norma, a set of variations on Bellini by the great French bassoonist and pedagogue of the last century. There is one extended unison section for the flute and bassoon, and the way Kugai and Tanaka match intonation and sounds is uncanny. The record continues with Les Cloches Bleues by Edouard Sabon, a celebrated French oboist and composer about whom little is known. The piece in theme-and-variations style could be a carbon copy of Jancourt. The concluding selection is the Fantasia Concertante, Op. 256 (!), by Carl Czerny, more flashy salon music. Sumi sounds especially good in this typically pianistic Czerny composition.
This is an immensely satisfying record. The Trio Calamus plays with a lot of dash and aplomb and it is always good to hear Tanaka's pyrotechnics and dark sound. Tanaka is to be commended for continuing to do premiere recordings of forgotten gems while his colleagues are content to rehash the warhorses. This nineteenth-century style is easy, however. It doesn't pose too many problems musically. The time has come for Tanaka to do something completely different and more challenging: a record of Japanese unaccompanied avant-garde bassoon music, for example.
Rating: 3 CROWS
John Ernst Galliard: Six Sonatas for Bassoon and Harpsichord. Octavian Anghel, bassoon; John Whitelaw, harpsichord. EMS SB202 (no address).
John Ernst Galliard led a typically peripatetic European career and left us with six sonatas, of which this is billed as the first complete recording. Galliard was born in Celle in 1680 or 1687, the son of a French wig-maker. In 1706 he moved to London, where he played oboe at the Royal Court. He wrote instrumental sonatas, cantatas, and, like Handel, operas on classical themes. He died in London in 1749.
The limited program notes do not offer much information about Octavian Anghel, apart from the fact that he pursues a solo career and records for many European radios. His harpsichordist, John Whitelaw, is American and has won competitions in Bruges and Paris.
Anghel plays these sonatas with a nice sound, sure fingers and good intonation but his rapid vibrato is distracting. The church acoustics are a bit resonant. One wishes that a violoncello or viola da gamba had helped out the continuo; the accompaniment sounds meagre and harmonic progressions are not as dramatic as they could be. All in all though, it is a nice album, despite the poor cover art and frequently incomprehensible English translations.
Rating: 2 CROWS
Conradin Kreutzer: Two Trios and "Das Mühlrad ". Hans Rudolf Stalder and Elmar Schmid, clarinets; Walter Stiftner, bassoon; Dorothea Jappe, viols; Rolf Junghanns, hammerflugl; Elisabeth Speiser, soprano. Jecklin-Disco 587 (8024 Zurich, Switzerland).
Conradin Kreutzer is a rather obscure composer now, but during the early Romantic period he was one of the most popular composers in Europe. He was born in Messkirch (Baden) in 1780 and spent his life travelling around Germany, Austria, Switzerland, even as far afield as Riga. He wrote a couple of operas with titles worthy of P.D.Q. Bach ("The Bivouac in Granada" and "The Spendthrift"), and lots of chamber and vocal music. Towards the end of his life he was reduced to living off his two daughters, both singers. In 1849 he died of a stroke in the aforementioned Riga, the day after his daughter Marie had been dismissed from her position at the theatre there.
This record begins with Kreutzer's Trio for piano, clarinet and bassoon, KWV 5105 (his works have even been catalogued). The artists perform on original classical instruments from 1800-1810. Stalder plays a boxwood clarinet with five keys by Astor (London), and Stiftner a six-keyed "Bühner & Keller" (Strasbourg). Junghanns performs on a hammerflugel by Rosenberger (Vienna).
The performances are first-rate on this disc, and the performers play their instruments so well that they can spend their energies attacking musical problems. The music of Kreutzer is similar to that of Hummel, Spohr, and Weber: not especially deep, but having a certain simple Biedermeier charm. Stiftner's bassoon playing is assured, with a rich, dark sound. Of particular interest on this recording is the hammerflugel with its six pedals. They include janissary pedal (Turkish drum, glockenspiel, and cymbals) and bassoon pedal which is described as "a rasping device in the bass register." I don't know how we get along without these pedals today!
The disc also contains Das Mühlrad for soprano, clarinet, and piano, and the Trio for two clarinets and viola, fine performances both. Elmar Schmid plays second clarinet on the Trio, also using a five-keyed boxwood clarinet from London, this one made by Simpson (ca. 1825). The sound quality of this disc is excellent, and the liner notes are scholarly and well-tran slated.
Rating: 3 CROWS