Charles Koechlin; Albéric Magnard; Charles-Marie Widor - Chansons Bretonnes; Cello Sonatas (Mats Lidström; Bengt Forsberg)

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Composer: Charles Koechlin; Albéric Magnard; Charles-Marie Widor

1. Magnard - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 20: I. Sans lenteur
2. Magnard - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 20: II. Sans faiblir -
3. Magnard - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 20: III. Funèbre
4. Magnard - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 20: IV. Rondement
5. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: I. La chanson du Pilote
6. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: II. Merlin au berceau
7. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: III. La conversation de Merlin
8. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: IV. Le faucon
9. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: V. Le rossignol
10. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: VI. L'enfant suppose
11. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: VII. L'épouse du Croise
12. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: VIII. Le page de Louis XIII
13. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book III: IX. La marche d'Arthur
14. Widor - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 80: I. Allegro moderato
15. Widor - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 80: II. Andante con moto
16. Widor - Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 80: III. Allegro vivace

Mats Lidström, cello
Bengt Forsberg, piano
Date: 2000
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67244

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Review

An out-of-the-way programme, maybe, but the music isn’t uninteresting or second rate, and Lidström and Forsberg’s established expertise in performing French music makes for an issue that’s well worth exploring. They’ve already recorded the first two books of Koechlin’s Chansons Bretonnes for Hyperion (8/98), but were unaware that he had left a third set until his son presented them with a copy. Koechlin uses the simple, often modal, folk material most imaginatively, to create a series of miniature character pieces; intense, declamatory movements alternating with evocations of an austere medieval world. 

Of the two sonatas, the Widor is by some way the more ingratiating and decorative. Its predominately lyrical style, with subtle, shifting harmonies and elaborate piano writing, put me in mind, oddly, of Rachmaninov, but a Rachmaninov where the sombre melancholy is replaced by bright, positive feelings, especially in the rhapsodic finale. Bengt Forsberg is extremely impressive here, combining virtuosity in the Lizstian tradition with playing of extreme delicacy. 

The Magnard Sonata of 1910 is a slightly more familiar work; it’s been recorded several times. Its complex harmonic idiom, with constantly changing tonality and elaborate counterpoint, demands the listener’s close attention, and Lidström and Forsberg make everything as clear as can be. They’re adept at finding just the right tone for each passage – a good example is the way the tempestuous Scherzo (sans faiblir is Magnard’s instruction) transforms into the more inward but still anguished Funèbre third movement. In the contrasting consolatory section of this funeral march, Mats Lidström produces the most beautiful soft tone, starting very tentatively, then blossoming into greater intensity.

-- Duncan Druce, Gramophone

More reviews:

http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-9471/
https://www.amazon.com/French-Cello-Music-Alberic-Magnard/dp/B00009NJ1S

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Charles Koechlin (27 November 1867 – 31 December 1950) was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars (especially Lilian Harvey and Ginger Rogers), traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism. Koechlin was enormously prolific. Despite his lack of worldly success, Koechlin was apparently a loved and venerated figure in French music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin

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Albéric Magnard (9 June 1865 – 3 September 1914) was a French composer. Magnard became a national hero in 1914 when he refused to surrender his property to German invaders and died defending it. Magnard's musical style is typical of contemporary French composers, but occasionally, as in the four completed symphonies, certain passages foreshadow the music of Gustav Mahler. His use of cyclic form and occasional incorporation of chorale earned him the nickname of "French Bruckner.".  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alb%C3%A9ric_Magnard

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Charles-Marie Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher. Widor wrote music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles (some of his songs for voice and piano are especially notable) and composed four operas and a ballet, but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. The organ symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire. His students included Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupré, Darius Milhaud, Edgard Varèse, ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Marie_Widor

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Mats Lidström (born 1959, Stockholm) is a Swedish cellist, recording artist, chamber musician, composer, teacher and publisher. His first teacher was Maja Vogl in Gothenburg. He then went on to study at the Juilliard School (New York) with Leonard Rose. Lidström plays the "Grützmacher" Rocca (Giuseppe Rocca 1857). He appears on EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, BIS, Hyperion, Musica Sveciae, Opus 3, Caprice Records (sv), as well as on his own label CelloLid.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mats_Lidstr%C3%B6m

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