The exceptionally gifted German pianist Alexander Lonquich with a recital disc dedicated to French piano music of the late 19th and early 20th century.
The lyricism of Fauré – one of the most enduring popular of French composers – is revealed in his Five Impromptus), which Lonquich scatters like jewels through his album. Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” is intensely romantic and a virtuosic tour-de-force. And the Eight Preludes (1929) comprised Olivier Messiaen’s first published work – inspired by the atmospheres of Debussy, but already full of the transcendent sensitivity to sound-colour that was to make Messiaen the most outstanding composer of his generation. Lonquich gives insight into the characters of the three composers but also, in contrasting them, shows the continuity of the experimental impulse in French music, which has so often accompanied its songful qualities.
Plainte Calme
Alexander Lonquich
- 1Impromptu La bémol majeur op. 34
04:57 - Huit Préludes pour piano
- 2La colombe02:02
- 3Chant d'extase dans un paysage triste06:45
- 4Le nombre léger01:39
- 5Instants défunts04:40
- 6Les sons impalpables du rêve03:16
- 7Cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu08:35
- 8Plainte calme03:21
- 9Un reflet dans le vent04:59
- 10Impromtu Mi bémol majeur op. 25
04:00 - 11Impromtu Re bémol majeur op. 91
04:39 - 12Impromtu Fa mineur op. 31
03:45 - Gaspard de la Nuit
- 13I. Ondine06:40
- 14II. Le Gibet07:26
- 15III. Scarbo09:31
- 16Impromptu Fa dièse mineur op. 102
02:09
C’est presque un hymne à l’Europe, en tout cas la négation de tout nationalisme musical. Alexander Lonquich, pianiste quadragénaire allemand, propose une admirable leçon de piano français, de la fin du XIXe au début de XXe siècle, signée Fauré, Ravel et Messiaen. On apprécie la délicatesse du toucher exempte de toute mièvrerie. Il aborde sans a priori le jeune Messiaen encore tout gorgé de Debussy dans son « Chant d’extase » ou « Un reflet dans le vent ». Il ne voit pas non plus dans Fauré un compositeur de salon : ses cinq Impromptus supportent la comparaison avec le Ravel du « Gaspard de la nuit ». Il est bon de remettre les œuvres dans leur contexte et les pièces du puzzle dans le bon ordre.
Le Figaro
In Plainte calme erscheinen drei kompositorische Sphären eng aneinander gerückt: diejenigen Olivier Messiaens, Maurice Ravels und Gabriel Faurés. Dessen Impromptus taugen hier als „Promenade“ durch eine Welt irisierender Klänge im Schwellenbereich zur Nichttonalität. ... Kompakt gespielt wird der frühe, durchaus schon von schwärmerischer Religiosität berührte Messiaen-Zyklus sowie das Ravel-Triptychon, dessen klaviertechnisch gefürchtete Außensätze Lonquich mit einer zart insistierenden Eleganz absolviert, die gleichwohl nichts vom plötzlich aufschießenden Elan verschenkt. Klavieristischer Theaterdonner wäre schnell vorbei. Lonquichs Kunst der Nuance und der „difference“ bleibt lange im Gedächtnis haften – als erfüllte, gelebte Musik.
Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich, Frankfurter Rundschau
Faurés Impromptus entstanden über einen Zeitraum von Jahrzehnten. Sie sind erstaunlich hermetisch, wie sich die Musik Faurés ja generell nicht leicht erschließt und erfreulicher Weise gerade jetzt allmählich wieder für das Repertoire entdeckt wird. Da trifft Lonquich den – man möchte sagen – unentschiedenen Tonfall traumhaft sicher. ... Wir haben noch das Meisterwerk, Ravels „Gaspard de la Nuit“. Und hier transzendiert Lonquichs Klavierspiel in wirklich atemberaubender Weise in ein tiefdunkles Jenseits. Ganze Sträuße von Blumen des Bösen pflückt er, und es sind auch ein paar Höllenrosen dabei.
Norbert Ely, Deutschlandfunk / Die neue Platte
In seinem neuen Album mit dem Messiaen-Titel Plainte calme erzählt er eine kleine Geschichte der französischen Klaviermusik in drei Generationen nicht der Reihe nach. Er streut die fünf Impromptus, die Gabriel Fauré von 1881 bis 1909 veröffentlichte, verbindend und trennend zwischen Messiaens frühe „Préludes pour piano“ und Ravels „Gaspard de la nuit“. Unversehens gewinnen die keineswegs harmlosen Charakterstücke an Profil und Eigenleben. ... Ravel, Faurés Kompositionsschüler am Pariser Conservatoire ... hat mit Nixe, Galgen und Höllenzwerg den Pianisten das Fürchten beigebracht. Aber Lonquich scheint die tour de force nichts auszumachen. Unangestrengt, textstreng lässt er Unerhörtes hören... Noch in der teuflischsten Akrobatik behält Lonquich kühlen Kopf, sensualistische Finger und melodischen Charme. Diese Elemente des Durch- und Überblicks lassen ihn auch bei Fauré und Debussy nie im Stich.
Ellen Kohlhaas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Three generations of French composers are represented in this exceptional recital disc by Alexander Lonquich, which moves from the songful “Impromptus” of Gabriel Fauré, through Maurice Ravel’s exuberantly virtuosic “Gaspard de la nuit”, to Olivier Messiaen’s “Huit Préludes pour piano”. Messiaen’s Préludes, his first published work, already revealed more than hints of the heightened sensitivity to sound-colour and the structural originality that were to make the composer one of the principal architects of the new music. “Plainte Calme”, named for one of Messiaen’s preludes, pays tribute to the experimental impulse in French music, and the ways in which it has developed alongside intrinsically lyrical characteristics.
Gabriel Fauré wrote his five impromptus over a period of more than a quarter-century (between 1882 and 1909) and accordingly Lonquich treats them as autonomous pieces rather than a set, threading them, jewel-like, throughout the recital. As Jessica Duchen points out in the CD booklet, despite his reputation as a choirmaster and church organist, Fauré was at heart a pianist, and an uncommonly gifted one: “He was ambidextrous, and his piano writing filled with subtle tricks of voicing, intertwining polyphonic lines and melodies set in the centre of the piano, divided between the hands, often confirms this.” While the influence of Chopin and Saint-Saens is marked in the early impromptus, by the third, Faurè’s songwriting gifts are in full flower, and the fourth “unfolds with a dizzying range of harmonic and rhythmic intricacies”. The fifth impromptu is an instance of Faurè’s increasingly exploratory late style.
Maurice Ravel was one of Fauré’s composition students at the Paris Conservatoire, although his 1908 work “Gaspard de la nuit” owes its inspirations to other sources. Ravel‘s goal was to write a pianistic tour-de-force that would top Balakirev’s then-popular “oriental fantasy” “Islamey”, and to challenge the playing capacities of his good friend Ricardo Viñes, the Spanish pianist who was also an important advocate for Debussy’s work.
Messiaen’s Préludes are in places equally challenging, “Les sons impalpable du rêve” for instance “presents the pianist with no fewer than 56 changes of meter in 74 bars”, while the synaesthetic notes in the margin point to the future, with the composer calling for “blue-orange mode with ostinato in chords cascaded on a violet-blue mode treated like a brassy gong”. The last of the Préludes, “Un reflet dans le vent” is “a signpost toward the music Messiaen was to write for Yvonne Loriod, including the ‘Catalogue d’Oiseaux’ and ‘Vingts Regards sur l’enfant Jésus’ - among the greatest works for piano composed in the 20th century.”
Gabriel Fauré wrote his five impromptus over a period of more than a quarter-century (between 1882 and 1909) and accordingly Lonquich treats them as autonomous pieces rather than a set, threading them, jewel-like, throughout the recital. As Jessica Duchen points out in the CD booklet, despite his reputation as a choirmaster and church organist, Fauré was at heart a pianist, and an uncommonly gifted one: “He was ambidextrous, and his piano writing filled with subtle tricks of voicing, intertwining polyphonic lines and melodies set in the centre of the piano, divided between the hands, often confirms this.” While the influence of Chopin and Saint-Saens is marked in the early impromptus, by the third, Faurè’s songwriting gifts are in full flower, and the fourth “unfolds with a dizzying range of harmonic and rhythmic intricacies”. The fifth impromptu is an instance of Faurè’s increasingly exploratory late style.
Maurice Ravel was one of Fauré’s composition students at the Paris Conservatoire, although his 1908 work “Gaspard de la nuit” owes its inspirations to other sources. Ravel‘s goal was to write a pianistic tour-de-force that would top Balakirev’s then-popular “oriental fantasy” “Islamey”, and to challenge the playing capacities of his good friend Ricardo Viñes, the Spanish pianist who was also an important advocate for Debussy’s work.
Messiaen’s Préludes are in places equally challenging, “Les sons impalpable du rêve” for instance “presents the pianist with no fewer than 56 changes of meter in 74 bars”, while the synaesthetic notes in the margin point to the future, with the composer calling for “blue-orange mode with ostinato in chords cascaded on a violet-blue mode treated like a brassy gong”. The last of the Préludes, “Un reflet dans le vent” is “a signpost toward the music Messiaen was to write for Yvonne Loriod, including the ‘Catalogue d’Oiseaux’ and ‘Vingts Regards sur l’enfant Jésus’ - among the greatest works for piano composed in the 20th century.”
| YEAR | DATE | VENUE | LOCATION | |
| 2026 | January 13 | Pierre Boulez Saal | Berlin, Germany |
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