Maurice Ravel

“An engaging set of French language orchestral songs, the juxtaposition of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and Britten's Les Illuminations being especially rewarding. None of the performances are weak, but all are surpassed elsewhere.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 ****

“Best of this previously unpublished late-1950s Bucharest recital is Oistrakh's breathtaking account of Szymanowski's Myths. Despite poor piano sounds, the Franck Sonata and Ravel Tzigane are as compelling.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 *****

“Here we have a fabulous unpublished programme that not only offers us new David Oistrakh repertoire but, in the case of the works we do already have from him, delivers performances that are sufficiently distinctive to warrant the duplication.
Take César Franck's Sonata, where Oistrakh's vibrato is more expressively intense than it often is on disc and where Vladimir Yampolsky transcends his familiar 'accompanist' role to assert an individual musical personality with playing that in its freedom and grandeur at times reminded me of Cortot, no less. Ravel's Tzigane is another winner – witty, spontaneous, incisive in its attack and, near the end, dangerously fast.
Other available Oistrakh Tziganes also deliver, musically speaking, but none sounds quite so thrillingly off the cuff.
And then there are the newcomers to Oistrakh's discography, all of them fine works. The Szymanowski Myths 'Narcissus' and 'Dryads and Pan' extend the experience we already have of Oistrakh in the opening 'Fountain of Arethusa' with seductive tone production, filigree passagework and a sense of play that perfectly matches Szymanowski's fantastical imagination. The late and rather discursive Schumann Fantasy in C, presented here with Fritz Kreisler's rich piano reduction, is a true tour de force, bittersweet one moment, boldly virtuoso the next and graced by a uniquely rounded musical sensibility that left the world the day David Oistrakh died.
Happily we still have the records, with this 1958 Bucharest recital being one of the finest of all. The sound is fairly good, the balance variable but never skewed. Utterly unmissable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Don't miss this fabulous rarity - a genuinely unpublished recital from '58. The Szymanowski Myths "Narcissus" and "Dryads and Pan" extend the experience we already have of Oistrakh in the opening "Fountain of Arethusa" with seductive tone production, filigree passagework and a sense of play that perfectly matches Szymanowski's fantastical imagination. Utterly unmissable...” Gramophone Magazine, February 2009

“There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing… that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

“Dynamic ranges are wide, with Ravel's crescendos not underplayed in any mistaken attempt at classicism, and rubatos are applied with tactful expressivity.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

“Among the many breathtaking moments on the Ebène Quartet's CD, there is one in particular that keeps calling one back. It occurs at around 1'14” into the Ravel's slow movement, the second set, which enters like a bittersweet memory before a literal recollection of the Quartet's opening motif. Other subtle details of interpretation include the chord at 2'03” that underpins a transformation of the first subject before the same chord leads directly into the second subject – and when it does, utterly changing in character, turning warmer, more openly inviting. The ebb and flow of the passage at 5'29” where the second subject rides above an arpeggiated accompaniment, music that looks both forwards to Debussy's own La mer and backwards to Rimsky's Sheherazade (or so it seems). There's a fluidity to the Ebène's playing of both works that suits the music's character, a mood of wistfulness too that the Ravel especially benefits from. This improvisatory approach is hardly surprising from an ensemble that is also celebrated for its jazz performances.
It was a brilliant idea to include Fauré's late Quartet which, in a sense, provides the linchpin for all three works, the Ravel having been composed in Fauré's class to mark the 10th anniversary of Debussy's quartet, and which is dedicated to Fauré. An extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards, Fauré's Quartet responds well to the Ebène's sensitised approach.
Anyone requiring this particular trio of works won't be disappointed, which makes the various pairings of the Ravel and Debussy quartets on their own seem somewhat less enticing.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“it is the performance of the Fauré that makes this disc so rewarding. Late Fauré...is notoriously elusive, both melodically and harmonically. But the Ébène manage to make everything in the three-movement quartet seem perfectly logical, utterly natural and close in sensibility to the works by Debussy and Ravel that flank it.” The Guardian, 31st October 2008 ****

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say share a radical approach, performing each musical gesture in the most vivid way, with smoothness and tonal beauty a secondary consideration. It's undeniably exciting… Daring, and highly individual playing…” Gramophone Magazine, January 2009

“This is far from being just another recording of the Kreutzer Sonata. Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say share a radical approach, performing each musical gesture in the most vivid way, with smoothness and tonal beauty a secondary consideration. It's undeniably exciting, especially the first movement which, after all, is quite a wild piece, but the exaggerated shortness of many staccato notes can be quite disturbing. And in the finale, which, though it shares something of the first Presto's manic quality, has a joyful aspect, Kopatchinskaja's ultra-short, rather splashy bowing of both main themes fails to project their full melodic élan.
Like the Beethoven, the Bartók is a slightly frustrating mixture of the brilliant and the questionable, but in the Ravel the performance's radical edge is more completely successful. The first movement's out-of-key interjections are sharply characterised and drawn together by a powerful sense of line, and the spirit of the Blues movement is captured wholeheartedly, with some unusual piano sounds and spectacular violin- playing. Not surprisingly, Say's own Sonata is also beautifully played. Most imaginatively written for the two instruments and adopting a direct, uncomplicated style, four short movements chart a progression from romantic melancholy through an area of dark, grotesque struggle to an empty, bleak landscape, with a repeat of the gentle first movement as consolation. Daring, and highly individual playing – it's a CD worth investigating.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“With Susan Graham in radiant form and Malcolm Martineau not just an accompanist but an active partner in the project, "Un frisson français" offers a unique survey of French mélodie from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th: 22 songs… one composer. A rich collection in excellent sound: no one is likely to be disappointed.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“The familiar here appears in unusual contexts and alongside a scattering of rarities. The performers are at one in their fluency, delicate rubato and avoidance of Anglo-Saxon archness, within an acoustic that combines intimacy and atmosphere.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

“With Susan Graham in radiant form and Malcolm Martineau not just an accompanist but an active partner in the project, 'Un frisson français' offers a unique survey of French mélodie from the mid–19th century to the mid–20th: 22 songs…one per composer.
Martineau describes the plan as a 'tasting menu', starting with Gounod, to whom he ascribes the launching of the genre of French mélodie. Even Ravel said that Gounod was 'the true founder of the mélodie in France' and his song 'Au rossignol' ('To the Nightingale') is included in the first of five sections – 'founding fathers', including Bizet, Franck, Lalo and Saint–Saëns. It is fascinating to hear the original version with piano of 'Danse macabre', Graham marvellously biting.
Martineau describes the sequence as 'loosely chronological', and one beauty of the scheme is that rare and forgotten composers are included, such as Paladilhe and Bachelet who are represented in late–Romantic mélodies with night and nature dominating themes. The third group – including Ravel and Debussy – takes us into the 20th century. Especially fascinating is André Caplet's setting of 'Le corbeau et le renard' ('The Crow and the Fox') with elaborate piano accompaniment.
Only rare songs are chosen for each composer and perhaps Martineau chose some of them for the colourful accompaniments, as in Chausson's fluttering accompaniment for his picture of the butterfly in 'Le papillon'. The fourth section has childhood as a common theme and the climactic section has only one song, much the longest, Poulenc's 'La dame de Monte-Carlo', to words by Jean Cocteau. It is like an encapsulated version of the operatic monodrama La voix humaine with the singer on the verge of a breakdown.
A rich collection in excellent sound: no one is likely to be disappointed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010