Composer: César Auguste Franck, Louis Vierne
Performer: Trio Wanderer, Catherine Montier, Christophe Gaugué
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: HMM902318.19
Release: 2023
Size: 4.08 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 14
01. I. Molto moderato quasi lento
02. II. Lento con molto sentimento
03. III. Allegro non troppo ma con fuoco
Vierne: Piano Quintet in C minor Op. 42
04. I. Poco lento – Moderato
05. II. Larghetto sostenuto
06. III. Maestoso – Agitato – Allegro molto risoluto
CD 02
Franck: Violin Sonata in A major
01. I. Allegretto ben moderato
02. II. Allegro
03. III. Recitativo-Fantasia. Ben moderato – Molto lento
04. IV. Allegretto poco mosso
Franck: Trio Concertant in F sharp minor, Op. 1, No. 1
05. I. Andante con moto
06. II. Allegro molto
07. III. Allegro maestoso
The Trio Wanderer follows up its multi-award- winning Schumann set with an exploration of the fascinating world of César Franck. The gulf between his youthful trios and the prodigious works of his maturity reveals a fundamental turning point in the history of French chamber music. Continuing along the trail that Franck blazed with such brio, Louis Vierne’s deeply moving Quintet offers an echo of the older man’s work.
French chamber music is, in general, underexposed, notwithstanding the popularity of Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor and Violin Sonata in A major. Those two works receive strong performances here from a subset and an expanded version, respectively, of the Wanderer Trio. The players capture the over-the-top quality of both works, the exceptional difficulty and range of the piano part in the sonata, and the emotional extremes of the Quintet, but what makes this double album a must for chamber music lovers is the presence of the other two works on the album, both of them much less common: the Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 42, of Louis Vierne and Franck’s Piano Trio No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1, No. 1. The Vierne quintet is a revelation. The booklet makes much of Vierne’s indebtedness to Franck, and indeed, Franck’s cyclical procedure and his general combination of contrapuntal density with intense expressivity are present. Yet the work is wholly characteristic of Vierne. It often has the flavor of Vierne’s better-known organ music (sample the Larghetto sostenuto slow movement), and it has a distinctively somber tone resulting from its origins as a memorial piece for the composer’s son, dead in World War I. The Franck F sharp minor trio, one of several early Franck trios, is in a Mendelssohnian vein, but Franck’s melodicism was fully present even at this early date (1839). The program as a whole sustains interest over its length, and Harmonia Mundi’s sound from the Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers is resonant and idiomatic, not damaging the players’ properly extreme dynamic range. An exciting chamber music release.