Cécile Chaminade - Piano Works (Eric Parkin)

Information

Composer: Cécile Chaminade

1. Pierrette (Air de Ballet), Op. 41 (Allegretto)
2. Contes blues, Op. 122: No. 2 in G major (Andante sostenuto)
3. Minuetto, Op. 23 (Allegro)
4. Danse créole, Op. 94 (Allegretto)
5. Sérénade, Op. 29 (Moderato)
6. Air de Ballet, Op. 30 (Allegro)
7. 6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: 1. Souvenance (Andantino)
8. 6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: 3. Idylle (Allegro moderato)
9. 6 Romances sans Paroles, Op. 76: 6. Meditation (Lento)
10. 6 Pièces humoristiques, Op. 87: 4. Autrefois (Andante - Allegro vivo - Tempo I)
11. Guitare, Op. 32 (Allegretto)
12. Sous le masque, Op. 116 (Allegro capriccioso)
13. Suite for solo piano, Op. 20b: 2. Pas des Sylphes (Intermezzo. Andate - Più mosso, quasi - Allegretto - Andante - Tempo I)
14. 6 Études de concert, Op. 35: 2. Automne (Lento - Con fuoco - Tempo I)
15. La lisonjera (L'Enjôleuse), Op. 50 (Moderato molto capriccioso)
16. Air à danser, Op. 164 (Ben tranquillo)
17. 5 Airs de Ballet (from Callirhoë), Op. 37b: 2. Pas des Écharpes (Troisième Air de Ballet)
18. Toccata, Op. 39 (Presto)
19. 6 Feuillets d'Album, Op. 98: 4. Valse Arabesque (Allegro vivo capriccioso ben cantando)
20. Lolita (Caprice espagnol), Op. 54 (Allegro vivo)

Eric Parkin, piano
Date: 1990
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%208888

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Review

''Instead of writing an indifferent symphony or quartet which no one wants and which you'd have to wait ages to hear performed,'' I remember a trenchantly clear-headed professor of composition saying, ''why not a piece of good light music? It takes every bit as much skill, and it'd give a damn sight more enjoyment to more people.'' Such sound advice is only too rarely followed, and there is in general a regrettable tendency to look down the nose patronizingly at composers who, however gifted, make no intellectual demands but set out only to please or charm. One such was Cecile Chaminade, about whom dictionaries are often sniffy, referring offhandedly to her ''salon music''—though besides her numerous piano pieces she in fact wrote an opera, a ballet, a symphony with chorus, several orchestral suites and a Concertstuckfor piano and orchestra rather oddly labelled as ''in C sharp and D flat''.

If her music reveals some genes from Chopin and Schumann, well, there are worse models; and her melodic fluency, harmonic invention, freedom of key movement and pianistic resource are by no means to be derogated. There is distinctive charm here in, for example, the Serenade and the Meditation, but everything is not merely pretty or mild-mannered: there is considerable variety—agreeably teasing rhythms inGuitare, effectively written climactic passages (as in the habanera-like Danse creole and the Valse arabesque), real bravura in the well-known Automne and brilliance in the Toccata and the middle section of Autrefois. It would be hard to find a more sympathetic interpreter than Eric Parkin, who catches Chaminade's lyrical grace without lapsing into sentimentality and perfectly judges the delicate rubato required. The recorded piano tone is excellent, though ideally a more intimate acoustic than the empty Maltings at Snape might have been appropriate.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Chaminade-Piano-Works-C/dp/B000000ALL

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Cécile Chaminade (8 August 1857 – 13 April 1944) was a French composer and pianist, one of the relatively few women composers of her time to achieve great popularity. She was a regular on British concert stages and a big hit in America. Many of Chaminade's piano compositions received good reviews from critics; her music was described as tuneful, highly accessible and mildly chromatic. Chaminade was relegated to obscurity for the second half of the 20th century, as her piano pieces and songs mostly forgotten. The Flute Concertino in D major, Op. 107 (1902) is her most popular piece today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9cile_Chaminade

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Eric Parkin (born 1924 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire) is an English pianist. Parkin studied at Trinity College of Music in London. His teachers were the distinguished Anglo-French pianist Frank Laffitte and Professor George Oldroyd. A Prom debut with Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in J. Ireland's Piano Concerto brought him before a wider audience. Over the years he has appeared with many of the leading British orchestras, building a repertoire of over 70 works, ranging from J.S. Bach through the Classical and Romantic repertoire to much 20th century repertoire. Parkin has recorded many albums for Chandos.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Parkin-Eric.htm

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