Composer: Gabriel Urbain Fauré, César Auguste Franck, Vincent d’Indy
Performer: Francois-Joel Thiollier
Orchestra: Ireland National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Antonio de Almeida
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8550754
Release: 1994
Size: 184 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Franck: Symphonic Variations for piano & orchestra, M46
02. Fauré: Ballade in F sharp major for solo piano or piano & orchestra, Op. 19
Indy: Symphonie sur un chant montagnard, Op. 25
03. I. Assez lent – Moderement anime
04. II. Assez modere, mais sans lenteur
05. III. Anime
François-Joël Thiollier’s playing is individual, often impulsive but always idiomatic, helped by the sensitive, guiding hand of a conductor well acquainted with the music. A more high-profile production would probably have retaken those passages where piano and orchestra co-ordination is occasionally fractionally awry, such as in the last variation of the Franck, but it might also have seemed less spontaneous. Thiollier’s rubato is always distinctive and attractive; the style, particularly and crucially in the Fauré, properly fluid. Both the piano and the orchestra’s woodwind are discreetly prominent, but internal balances are generally excellent.