Poulenc: Cello Sonata, Op. 143 - CD

“This is an excellent, spirited two-CD set...A facotr that comes across clearly here is that Poulenc had a more or less infallible ear for tapping into the timbre and personality of different instruments...The London Conchord Ensemble mainfestly relish what Poulenc has to offer, playing with panache, wit and discreet sensitivity in performance that are a constant joy.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012

“This is an extremely enjoyable set of Poulenc's chamber music. It's certailny one of the best around...[recordings] are unobtrusively excellent, a lovely natural sound that gives this set an advantage over the two rival versions...In short, if you're looking for a fine set of Poulenc's chamber works in really engaging performances in very fine sound, this Champs Hill set is as good as any.” International Record Review, June 2012

“No longueurs on these excellent discs: Poulenc’s invention is always sprightly, and the performers are vivified by it; though an outstanding item is the Elégie for Horn and Piano, in memory of Dennis Brain” Sunday Times, 26th February 2012

“His work is no mere froth; there's a smoky, autumnal sadness to his harmonic writing, a lingering regret beneath the joie de vivre, particularly in the intimacy of his chamber music. The London Conchord Ensemble understand this completely, working their magic in the bittersweet sonatas...and romping through ensemble works large and small” The Observer, 19th February 2012

“Vividly captured in a warm acoustic, Queyras and Tharaud's is an intimate approach which exactly suits the two short sonatas of Debussy and Poulenc, the former with its abrupt changes of direction and unpredictable mood swings, the latter brimful of Poulencian wit and, not surprisingly as it was sketched in 1940 (completed in 1948), replete with some self-plagiarising from Babar.
These are fine accounts, the programme made even more attractive by the inclusion of the seven short movements of Poulenc's Suite française (1935) based on 16th-century dances by Claude Gervaise. It's a charmer. Apart from this, there are five other short works by the two composers making a truly delightful whole.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

'Entrancing. It's hard to select the choicest treasures from this jewel box of Poulenc's most witty and vivacious, hauntingly melodic and touchingly heartfelt music, especially when it is played with such effervescence and devotion as here. The two masterpieces are the Sextet for Piano and Winds (1932) and the delectable "Mozartian" Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon, played with dashing elan and soulful lyricism by the pianist Ian Brown and the Nash's brilliant wind principals. Richard Watkins's long-breathed account of the moving Elégie in memoriam Dennis Brain (1957) and Paul Watkins's noble-toned playing of the Cello Sonata (1940/48) are exceptional. But there is rapture, elation, zany high spirits in all of this music, dazzlingly played by the Nash Ensemble. Buy, buy, buy!' (The Sunday Times)

“Invidious as it may seem to pick out just one of these excellent artists, special mention must be made of Ian Brown, who plays in nine of the 13 works included and confirms his standing as one of the most admired and musicianly chamber pianists of our day. He knows, for example, how to control Poulenc's boisterous piano writing in the Sextet without sacrificing the sparkle, and as a result the work coheres better than ever before. Like the Trio (whose opening reveals Stravinskian influence), it's a mixture of the composer's madcap gamin mood and his predominantly melancholy bittersweet lyricism.
The latter characteristic is most in evidence in his most enduring chamber works: the solo wind sonatas with piano, all three of which were in the nature of tombeaux , the Flute Sonata for the American patron Mrs Sprague Coolidge, that for clarinet for Honegger, and that for oboe for Prokofiev. All are given idiomatic, sensitive and satisfying performances by the Nash artists.
The Elégie for Dennis Brain was a not altogether convincing experiment in dodecaphony: Poulenc had earlier dabbled in atonality and polytonality in the little sonatas (really sonatinas) for, respectively, two clarinets and for clarinet and bassoon. There's a touching reading of the little Sarabande for guitar. A hint of the guitar's tuning at the start of the second move- ment is almost the only Spanish reference in the Violin Sonata, which was composed in memoriam the poet Lorca, whose loss is bitterly suggested in the angry finale. In this work Poulenc allotted to the piano (his own instrument) rather more than equal status in the duo – a situation rather paralleled in the lighthearted Cello Sonata, over which the composer dallied longer than any other of his works – but balance in both is finely judged by the performers and the recording team.
The whole issue wins enthusiastic recommendation: it bids fair to become the undisputed yardstick for the future.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“A delectable programme from an exciting cellist” BBC Music Magazine, August 2002

“the freshness and energy they bring make up for their occasional brashness and weightier approach. Their Poulenc has an impressive freedom and sensuality, particularly in the plangent chordal introduction to the Finale, here played with an organ-like richness of resonance. In Debussy's masterfully spare Sonata, Streckel proves himself brilliantly in control of touch and timbre...Rivinius matches him in sensitivity and range of colour.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 *****

“Gastinel and Desert make a very good job of [the Franck] - the playing is natural and unforced. The Debussy Cello Sonata is excellent here, an account that captures the fleeting moods of the work extremely well. This is quite an individual performance, working convincingly towards climaxes...The Poulenc Sonata here is a winner but the whole disc is very impressive.” International Record Review, January 2012

“highly articulate, sensitively shaped and technically mellifluous performances from two outstanding musicians, which on this occasion only catch fire intermittently.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2012 ***

“[Gastinel] and Claire Desert have a wonderfully intuitive partnership and both draw on subtle, inimitable soundworlds....Gastinel brings the right note of nonchalant simplicity to Debussy's Sonata...Where Rostropovich and Britten's landmark recording of this work has panache and bite, this duo, with cat-like tread, bring out an utterly different quality - equally stylish, and quietly impressive.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 *****

“one of the notable aspects of the playing is its singing quality, the expressiveness that Gastinel draws from fine nuances of sound all seamlessly knit together in mellifluous lines...In her interpretative stance and application of colour Gastinel is ideally matched by Desert; the recorded balance is judicious and there is a real sense of a performance being created in complete accord.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012

“The first volume in this series of Poulenac's chamber music was a bit of a mixed bag. ...there are wonderfully spiky moments from Graf Mourja in the Stravinskian Violin Sonata, and Ronald Van Spaendonck's control of the haunting slow movement of the Clarinet Sonata is mesmerising.” BBC Music Magazine