Alessio Bax, Lucille Chung – Poulenc: Works for Piano Solo and Duo (2016) [Hyperion FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Francis Poulenc – Works for Piano Solo and Duo – Alessio Bax, Lucille Chung (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:10 minutes | 1,0 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: hyperion-records.co.uk | Booklet, Front Cover | © Signum Records
Recorded: January 2015, Snape Maltings, Suffolk, United Kingdom

Poulenc was a skilled pianist, cultivating a style of playing characterised by colorfulness and clarity, possessing an ear for melody that distinguished him as France’s finest song composer since Fauré. Canadian pianist Lucille Chung – acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, “combining vigor and suppleness with natural eloquence and elegance” – appears as a soloist on this new recording, performing Poulenc’s Improvisations and Novelettes before being joined by her duo partner (and husband) Alessio Bax for L’embarquement pour Cythere, the Sonata for Four Hands and Concerto for Two Pianos.

Another Signum issue well worthy of your attention features the husband and wife duo Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung. Here, for the first time on disc, she takes the lead, playing some of Poulenc’s solo piano music, and is then joined by her husband for some piano duet, and two piano pieces. The 50th anniversary of Poulenc’s death in 2013 passed almost without notice, which is sad, because Poulenc is one of the most captivating composers, with, as Stravinsky once said, “The greatest melodic gift of any 20th century composer. This is an interesting combination of the familiar and the unfamiliar. The Novelettes are quite well known, the 15 Improvisations, not so. For me the most attractive piece here is Poulenc’s own arrangement for two pianos of his Concerto for two pianos. The slow movement alone is worth the price of this exceptional disc. -David Mellor, Classic FM

Tracklist:

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

15 Improvisations, FP 63
1 Improvisation No 1 in B minor FP63 No 1[1’35]
2 Improvisation No 2 in A flat major FP63 No 2[1’37]
3 Improvisation No 3 in B minor FP63 No 3[1’36]
4 Improvisation No 4 in A flat major FP63 No 4[1’30]
5 Improvisation No 5 in A minor FP63 No 5[1’45]
6 Improvisation No 6 in B flat major FP63 No 6[1’35]
7 Improvisation No 7 in C major FP63 No 7[2’44]
8 Improvisation No 8 in A minor FP63 No 8[1’36]
9 Improvisation No 9 in D major FP63 No 9[1’29]
10 Improvisation No 10 in F major ‘Éloge des gammes’ FP63 No 10[2’11]
11 Improvisation No 11 in G minor FP113 No 1[0’51]
12 Improvisation No 12 in E flat major ‘Hommage à Schubert’ FP113 No 2[2’10]
13 Improvisation No 13 in A minor FP170 No 1[2’23]
14 Improvisation No 14 in D flat major FP170 No 2[1’28]
15 Improvisation No 15 in C minor ‘Hommage à Edith Piaf’ FP176[3’23]
16 Novelette in C major FP47 No 1[2’43]
17 Novelette in B flat minor FP47 No 2[2’01]
18 Novelette sur un thème de Manuel de Falla FP173[2’40]