“55”, the pair of Katia and Marielle Labèque
Deutsche Grammophon 3-CD box set
To celebrate their anniversary in the service of music, the ever-juvenile Labèque sisters have published a box set of three CDs testifying to their abundant journey as a duo. Nothing escapes their curiosity in terms of style and repertoire, everything shines Thanks to their flamboyant virtuosity, which has been refined and “spiritualized” over time, contemporary scholarly or popular creation, which they defend with fire and flame, alongside Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie, brings German romanticism under the signature of Mendelssohn or Brahms. The piano in majesty under the 20 fingers of two princess musicians.
“Elegance”, by Juliette Hurel and Isabelle Moretti
Harmony of the World
Title Élégancethis recording fully deserves its name. Both in its program and in the playing, all nobility and delicacy, of its two performers, the flautist Juliette Hurel and the harpist Isabelle Moretti. There Suite and duo by Jean Cras (1879-1932) opens this walk to the heart of French music: tender and pearly, the harp dialogues with the mutinous and dreamy flute in a graceful alloy of bewitching timbres. Fauré, Bizet, Ravel and Debussy take over, but also some rarities from Clémence de Grandval or Eugène Bozza The complicity of the two artists shimmers there like spots of sunlight in a cool clearing.
“Melodies in a Bottle”, a pair of Vassilena Serafimova and the Ardeo Quartet
The Sweet Time
A marimba in The Four Seasons of Vivaldi? Much more than a strangeness, the meeting of percussion with the strings – in this case those of the excellent Ardeo quartet – proves very seductive. Once the surprise has passed, the mastery of Vassilena Serafimova highlights another face of this hit of classical music, a jubilation that is sometimes a little “wild”, sometimes radiantly poetic. L’Été by Vivaldi is set with later pieces (Jean Cras, Arvo Pärt, George Gershwin…), where the listener’s conviction owes much to that of the five performers. They open up new soundscapes, very well reproduced by Clément Gariel’s sound recording.
“Ballade vénitienne”, par l’ensemble Tumbleweeds and Claire-Ombeline Muhlmeyer
Evidence Classics
Four young instrumentalists recorded in the heart of France a tribute to the artistic Venice of the 17th century. The result is a pure gem which should seduce lovers of the Serenissima and well beyond. Under the direction of Claire-Ombeline Muhlmeyer, who performs with irresistible brilliance from the sackbutt (ancestor of the trombone) to the recorder, the Tumbleweeds ensemble, founded in 2021, weaves a garland of instrumental pieces with serious or lively, collected or twirling climates. They are signed Biagio Marini, Giovanni Legrenzi, Marco Uccellini… The scores were published in Venice, a mecca of musical production. The violin and the sackbut compete with rapid strokes and smooth phrasing, placed on the delicate plucked strings of the triple harp, the guitar or the theorbo.
“Hoffnung” by Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz
Harmony of the World
Continuing his partnership with Franz Schubert for the Harmonia Mundi label, baritone Samuel Hasselhorn offers us a bouquet of lieder composed in 1826, a year of renewal for the composer. Simple like little popular tunes or more sophisticated, these pieces wonderfully accompanied by the eloquent pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz are brought together here under the sign of hope. Yet there is so much diversity in this hope where doubt, nostalgia, even worry, make their way subtly. Never neutral but never demonstrative, the voice and the keyboard travel through an emotional and sensory color chart in the service of a quivering poetry whose ink seems not to have had time to dry on the page.
“Reynaldo Hahn, volume 2”, par le quatuor Tchalik et Dania Tchalik
Alcoholism
The gifted Tchalik string quartet publishes the second volume of its complete chamber music of Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947), intimate composer of Marcel Proust, author of a tasty, fine and protean work, including the delicious operetta Chives. With their brother, pianist Dania Tchalik, the members of the quartet explore a corpus to reveal many little-known scores. So much so that their project satisfies both the listener’s thirst for knowledge and their pleasure in hearing excellent music whose charm should not mask its depth. The Tchaliks reveal the rich ambivalences, the sadness of smiles and the benevolence of tears.
