Various Composers - L'Album des Six (Corinna Simon)

Information

• (01) Georges Auric - Prélude
• (02) Louis Durey - Romance sans paroles
• (03) Arthur Honegger - Sarabande
• (04) Darius Milhaud - Mazurka
• (05) Francis Poulenc - Valse
• (06) Germaine Tailleferre - Pastorale
• (07) Arthur Honegger - Sept piéces brèves, H. 25
• (14) Darius Milhaud - Le Printemps, Book I, Op. 25
• (17) Francis Poulenc - Improvisation in A minor à Georges Auric, FP 63/5
• (18) Francis Poulenc - Mélancolie, FP 105
• (19) Francis Poulenc - Novelette No. 3 in E minor, FP 173
• (20) Georges Auric - Trois pastorales à Darius Milhaud
• (23) Germaine Tailleferre - Impromptu
• (24) Germaine Tailleferre - Partita
• (27) Germaine Tailleferre - Rêverie
• (28) Germaine Tailleferre - Romance pour piano

Corinna Simon, piano
Date: 2019
Label: RCA

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Review

“Les Six”, the group of young composers working in Paris from the early 1920s is the center of this album, with their first collaborative effort giving it its name.

“L’Album des Six” contains one short piece from each of this group of composers – Auric, Durey, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and Milhaud – resulting in an interesting combination of styles, compositional technique and pianistic writing, all of which fully embraced by pianist Corinna Simon.

This opening suite is followed by additional groups or singular short pieces by the members of “Les Six”, with highlights including Francis Poulenc’s Mélancolie and Third Novelette, played with heart-warming affection.

Simon’s handling of this French repertoire is impressive in its subtlety; Even when percussive elements are called for, as in some of Honegger’s “Sept Pièces Brèves” or Georges Auric’s “Trois Pastorales À Darius Milhaud”, the basic tone of her piano is never aggressive, maintaining lovely roundness. Her pedal work is superb too, as in Germaine Tailleferre’s six works which close the album. Tailleferre’s Impromptu and Romance are true revelations, still hinting at Faure and early Debussy but also highly original.

A nicely planned, fascinating program, with a superb performance to match. The recording, made at Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin is at Sony’s best technical standards, making this a highly desirable release.

-- Tal Agam, The Classic Review

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"Les Six" is a name given to a group of six French composers who worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's The Five, originates in critic Henri Collet's 1920 article "Les cinq Russes, les six Français et M. Satie". Their music is often seen as a reaction against both the musical style of Richard Wagner and the impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The members were Georges Auric (1899–1983), Louis Durey (1888–1979), Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), Francis Poulenc (1899–1963), and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Six

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Berlin-born Corinna Simon studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin under Ingeborg Wunder and  at the Musikhochschule München under Ludwig Hoffmann. Simon made her solo debut in the Berlin Philharmonic in 1984. This was followed by engagements in numerous European cities as well as in China, Indonesia, Singapore, India, South Africa and the USA. Since 1989, Simon has been leading a training class for gifted young people, regularly gives masterclasses, and being a juror in international competitions. She has released several CDs and recorded numerous works for radio broadcasters.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinna_Simon
https://www.corinna-simon.com/en-gb/home

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