Information
Composer: Darius Milhaud
Jean-Marc Fessard, clarinet
Frédéric Pélassy, violin
Eliane Reyes, piano
Date: 2010
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572278
- (01) Suite for clarinet, violin and piano, Op. 157b
- (05) Scaramouche, Op. 165d
- (08) Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 40
- (12) Clarinet Sonatina, Op. 100
- (15) Le Printemps, Op. 18
- (16) Cinéma-Fantaisie d'après 'Le Bœuf sur le toit', Op. 58b
Jean-Marc Fessard, clarinet
Frédéric Pélassy, violin
Eliane Reyes, piano
Date: 2010
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572278
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What is it, exactly, about French music of the teens, 20s, and early 30s that makes it so wonderful, so enjoyable? Is it because of the lively rhythms, the bright sonorities, the general joie de vivre? All of that, yes, plus a willingness not to take one’s self or the music too terribly seriously. There’s always a tongue-in-cheek wryness to the music of Satie, Dukas, Auric, Poulenc, and Milhaud that escapes their more serious-minded Russian and German brethren. Yes, they meant what they wrote—Milhaud stated many times that Le Bœuf sur le toit was not a joke, but his honest reaction to Brazilian bands—but the uncanny accuracy of their replications always lent a somewhat bent air to the proceedings.
These marvelous examples of early Milhaud are no exception. Only the French would dare exploit two such bright instruments as the clarinet and violin together, playing in their high ranges where the combined sound is more piercing still. The joyous, quirky suite for these two instruments plus piano is a reduction of his 1936 incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s play Le Voyageur sans bagages. Latin-American rhythms abound to give the work a light and happy feeling, and these performers capture that mood perfectly. The first and third movements of Scaramouche derive from the incidental music Milhaud wrote for a revival of Molière’s Le Médecin Volant in 1937. The lead instrument is, optionally, clarinet or alto saxophone. As well as Jean-Marc Fessard plays it on clarinet, I’d love to hear the alto sax version.
With the second violin sonata, we jump 20 years back in time to 1917. This is more “serious” Milhaud, but still light and airy in his use of space, keeping the violin muted throughout and, in the fast movements (marked, as was Milhaud’s wont, vif , which is a French word encompassing all of the following: alive, brisk, spirited, animated, meddlesome, ardent, eager, and keen), showing remarkable contrapuntal and harmonic ingenuity. Frédéric Pélassy, particularly in the first and third movements, plays certain passages here with a tight, minimal vibrato, some sustained high notes sounding to my ears vibratoless. This is in keeping with the French violin school of the era, which did not adopt a continuous vibrato until the 1930s. The third movement (Lent) is almost Debussy-like in its quietude and serenity. The second and final Vif is meddlesome and quarrelsome indeed.
We hear an entirely different Milhaud in the 1927 Clarinet Sonatina, featuring harsh polytonality that includes minor ninths and augmented fourths. The first movement is particularly complex, using quirky descending motives rather freely; yet, even here, a spirit of lightness imbues this work. Stravinsky would have made something far more serious of the same material. The second movement, by contrast, returns to Milhaud’s tender, dreamy side before the last movement thrusts us, again, into a more thorny discourse, using the descending motif of the opening in multiple variations.
The very brief Le Printemps (1914), the earliest work on this CD, returns us to atmospheric tranquility, while the violin-piano version of Le Bœuf sur la toit is not merely a reduction of the orchestral ballet score, but rather a reduction of his original concept of the piece as a violin concerto. (After first writing the orchestral version, Milhaud wanted to send the score to Charlie Chaplin to use in one of his films, but Jean Cocteau talked him into making it a French ballet instead.) As this is the most familiar piece on the CD (albeit not in this version), the music needs less description or comment, except to say that Pélassy and Elaine Reyes play it very well indeed, capturing the work’s wry humor if somewhat underplaying its Latin energy. The little melody played just before the five-minute mark has the most Chaplinesque quality.
-- Lynn René Bayley, FANFARE
More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/milhaud-suite-scaramouche-violin-sonata-no-2-mw0002029926
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572278&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Milhaud-Clarinet-Violin-Scaramouche-Sonata/dp/B003VC51Y4
These marvelous examples of early Milhaud are no exception. Only the French would dare exploit two such bright instruments as the clarinet and violin together, playing in their high ranges where the combined sound is more piercing still. The joyous, quirky suite for these two instruments plus piano is a reduction of his 1936 incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s play Le Voyageur sans bagages. Latin-American rhythms abound to give the work a light and happy feeling, and these performers capture that mood perfectly. The first and third movements of Scaramouche derive from the incidental music Milhaud wrote for a revival of Molière’s Le Médecin Volant in 1937. The lead instrument is, optionally, clarinet or alto saxophone. As well as Jean-Marc Fessard plays it on clarinet, I’d love to hear the alto sax version.
With the second violin sonata, we jump 20 years back in time to 1917. This is more “serious” Milhaud, but still light and airy in his use of space, keeping the violin muted throughout and, in the fast movements (marked, as was Milhaud’s wont, vif , which is a French word encompassing all of the following: alive, brisk, spirited, animated, meddlesome, ardent, eager, and keen), showing remarkable contrapuntal and harmonic ingenuity. Frédéric Pélassy, particularly in the first and third movements, plays certain passages here with a tight, minimal vibrato, some sustained high notes sounding to my ears vibratoless. This is in keeping with the French violin school of the era, which did not adopt a continuous vibrato until the 1930s. The third movement (Lent) is almost Debussy-like in its quietude and serenity. The second and final Vif is meddlesome and quarrelsome indeed.
We hear an entirely different Milhaud in the 1927 Clarinet Sonatina, featuring harsh polytonality that includes minor ninths and augmented fourths. The first movement is particularly complex, using quirky descending motives rather freely; yet, even here, a spirit of lightness imbues this work. Stravinsky would have made something far more serious of the same material. The second movement, by contrast, returns to Milhaud’s tender, dreamy side before the last movement thrusts us, again, into a more thorny discourse, using the descending motif of the opening in multiple variations.
The very brief Le Printemps (1914), the earliest work on this CD, returns us to atmospheric tranquility, while the violin-piano version of Le Bœuf sur la toit is not merely a reduction of the orchestral ballet score, but rather a reduction of his original concept of the piece as a violin concerto. (After first writing the orchestral version, Milhaud wanted to send the score to Charlie Chaplin to use in one of his films, but Jean Cocteau talked him into making it a French ballet instead.) As this is the most familiar piece on the CD (albeit not in this version), the music needs less description or comment, except to say that Pélassy and Elaine Reyes play it very well indeed, capturing the work’s wry humor if somewhat underplaying its Latin energy. The little melody played just before the five-minute mark has the most Chaplinesque quality.
-- Lynn René Bayley, FANFARE
More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/milhaud-suite-scaramouche-violin-sonata-no-2-mw0002029926
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572278&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Milhaud-Clarinet-Violin-Scaramouche-Sonata/dp/B003VC51Y4
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Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor and teacher. He was a member of Les Six and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century; his opus list ended at 443. Milhaud composed for a wide range of genres. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality. His most popular works include Le bœuf sur le toit, La création du monde, Scaramouche, and Saudades do Brasil. Milhaud taught at Mills College and the Paris Conservatoire. The jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was one of Milhaud's most famous students, along with popular songwriter Burt Bacharach.
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