Charles Koechlin; Gabriel Pierné - Chansons Bretonnes; Cello Sonatas (Mats Lidström; Bengt Forsberg)

Information

Composer: Charles Koechlin; Gabriel Pierné

1. Pierné - Cello Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 46: 1. Lent
2. Pierné - Cello Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 46: 2. Animez très peu – Calme
3. Pierné - Cello Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 46: 3. I Tempo (Mouvet. de début) 
4. Pierné - Cello Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 46: 4. Animé
5. Koechlin - Cello Sonata, Op. 66: 1. Très modéré
6. Koechlin - Cello Sonata, Op. 66: 2. Andante quasi adagio
7. Koechlin - Cello Sonata, Op. 66: 3. Final: Allegro non troppo
8. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 1. La Prophétie de Gwene'hlan
9. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 2. Le Seigneur Nann et la Fée
10. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 3. Le Vin des Gaulois
11. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 4. Azénor-la-Pâle
12. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 5. Les laboureurs
13. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book I: 6. Saint-Eflam et le Roi Arthur
14. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 1. Les trois Moines rouges
15. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 2. Alain-le-Renard
16. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 3. Le baron Jaouioz
17. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 4. Notre-Dame du Folgoat
18. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 5. Iannik Skolan
19. Koechlin - Chansons bretonnes sur d'anciennes chansons populaires, Op. 115 - Book II: 6. La Ceinture de Noces

Mats Lidström, cello
Bengt Forsberg, piano
Date: 1997
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA66979

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Review

The present two artists are certainly doing their bit in enlarging the recorded repertoire of the cello. After their highly praised disc of Godard and Boellmann (Hyperion, 9/96) they have turned their attention to two near-contemporaries born in the 1860s, both pupils of Massenet: Pierne famous for succeeding Cesar Franck at the organ of Ste Clotilde and for directing the Orchestre Colonne for many years (and conducting the premiere of Stravinsky’s Firebird), Koechlin (who incidentally taught Cole Porter) for his vast output and his belated crush (in his late sixties) on film stars, particularly Lilian Harvey. The latter composer is represented by two attractive works – a set of Breton folk-song arrangements, which range from the simple and melancholy (“La prophetie”) to the capricious (“Alain-le-Renard”) or the archaic (“Les trois moines rouges”, treated in organum), and which allow Lidstrom to display his tonal range from robust (“Le vin des Gaulois”) to a thread of sound (“Le seigneur Nann et la fee”), and a short sonata from over a decade earlier, written in 1917. Despite being written in wartime, for much of the work the prevailing mood is one of contemplative tranquillity (which calls forth some ravishing soft playing from the cellist), though the central movement has an extremely complex piano part in a free atonality that continues into the agitated finale. Pierne’s big sonata is a rhapsodic, largely ecstatic work in one continuous movement that nevertheless divides into four sections, the material of the long slow first returning after a yearningly sensual Animez: the sonata culminates in an imaginative finale with moments of brilliance. The performance here is an eloquent one by both players, who are to be congratulated on their very sensitive subtlety; and the recording is strikingly truthful.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

More review:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Nov14/French_cello_CDA66979.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Pierne-Sonata-Koechlin-Chansons-Bretonnes/dp/B000007SZD

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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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Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, and organist. He succeeded César Franck as organist at Saint Clotilde Basilica in Paris from 1890 to 1898. As a conductor, he conducted the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, at the Ballets Russes, Paris, on 25 June 1910. Pierné wrote several operas and choral and symphonic pieces, as well as a good deal of chamber music. His discovery and promotion of the work of Ernest Fanelli in 1912 led to a controversy over the origins of impressionist music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Piern%C3%A9

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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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