Reynaldo Hahn - Le Rossignol éperdu (Billy Eidi)

Information

Composer: Reynaldo Hahn

CD1:

• (01-30) Le Rossignol éperdu: Première Suite

CD2:

• (01-06) Le Rossignol éperdu: Orient
• (07-15) Le Rossignol éperdu: Carnet de voyage
• (16-23) Le Rossignol éperdu: Versailles

Billy Eidi, piano

Date: 2014

Label: Timpani

http://timpani-records.com/2c2229.php

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Review

‘Le rossignol éperdu’ is to Hahn what Lieder ohne Worte is to Mendelssohn and Lyric Pieces to Grieg. It is a set of 53 short piano pieces, the earliest composed in 1899 when Hahn was in his mid-twenties, and completed in 1911. They were published in 1912 in four suites: Première Suite, Orient, Carnet de voyage and Versailles. The nightingale of the title is ‘éperdu’, translated variously as ‘bewildered’, ‘distracted’, ‘ecstatic’ or, in Timpani’s opaque booklet, ‘distraught’. The late Alistair Londonderry in his superior booklet-notes for Earl Wild’s 2001 world premiere recording suggests that ‘Perhaps this nightingale is all of these things. The collection can also be seen as a travel journal kept by a sensitive and sentimental melancholic.’ ‘Bewildering’ certainly describes the range of poets, paintings and places that inspired Hahn, as well as the sheer variety of these ‘poèmes pour piano’ (the work’s subtitle), the longest of which (No 3, ‘Douloureuse rêverie dans un bois de sapins’) lasts just over seven minutes in the hands of Billy Eidi, the shortest (No 14, ‘Portrait’) a mere 37 seconds.

Hahn’s unique musical style is a deft amalgam of Massenet (his teacher), Fauré and even Debussy (of whom, however, Hahn was not an admirer), with nods along the way to Mendelssohn, the clavecinistes (‘Les noces du duc de joyeuse’) and others. Each number on its own is an exquisite gem and to hear a handful at a time is delightful; but I wonder if Hahn is best served by having the four suites presented in two lengthy tranches (disc 1 of 30 numbers, 73'36"; disc 2 of 23 numbers, 57'42"), despite the sensitive playing of Eidi (a French pupil of Magda Tagliaferro and a specialist in French Romantic keyboard music). That said, I like his version every bit as much as Wild’s, both of them well recorded with appropriate intimacy.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 8
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Mar/Hahn_rossignol_2C2229.htm

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Reynaldo Hahn (August 9, 1874 in Caracas, Venezuela – January 28, 1947 in Paris, France) was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic, diarist, theatre director, and salon singer. Hahn studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Jules Massenet, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns and Émile Decombes. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie. As a conductor Hahn specialised in Mozart. For many years he was one of the best critics on music and musicians and a influential music critic of the leading Paris daily, Le Figaro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynaldo_Hahn

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Billy Eidi (born 1955) is a French pianist of Lebanese origin. He studied in Beirut with Zafer Dabaghi and Leila Aouad, in Salzburg with Hans Leygraf, in Siena with Guido Agosti, and in Paris with Magda Tagliaferro, Jacques Coulaud and Jean Micault. He is currently a professor at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, the Schola Cantorum, and the Academies of Nice and of Nancy. Eidi has particularly championed the romantic repertoire, usually the less performed works and composers, as well as 20th century French music. He is also passionate about the French mélodie.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Eidi

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