Tall Poppies TP081 (1996 release)
Alkan: Symphonie, Op. 39, Nos. 4-7
            La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer, Op. 31, No. 8
Magnard: Promenades, Op. 7
Stephanie McCallum, piano

Summary: irresistibly gorgeous and fascinatingly eclectic.

Doing some research on Alberic Magnard's pitifully small output, I
discovered this disc from Australian label Tall Poppies.  Their catalog
is a fascinating mixture of Australian contemporary music (small surprise
there!) and modern masterpieces such as Kodaly's piano music, Prokofiev and
Carter's cello sonatas and Janacek's 'On an Overgrown Path.' When the disc
arrived I put it on the stereo immediately, as is my wont, and began to
read the notes.

One of the first things to say about this release is the stunning quality
of the notes.  Belinda Webster, who manages Tall Poppies, admits to being
"a bit fussy about it" (not that that is necessarily a bad thing, in my
book) and I have to tell you that in this case fussiness pays off.  Rarely
have I read such a good set of notes which at once inform and entertain at
whatever level you want to read them, with not a hint of 'talking down' or
academic superiority.  Liner notes commissioners of the world, take note!
This disc is one of the few I have seen in which the notes are actually
illustrated with musical examples.

I have long been fascinated by nineteenth and twentieth century French
piano music, largely because French is the only language I speak with
any real fluency besides English and France and Belgium are the countries
in which I feel most at home when travelling.  Combine this with the
significant number of composers with something serious to say in the genre
and you have a subject fit for a lifetime of study.  Indeed, my interest in
Magnard, sparked by various Listers' comments on the symphonies, was
maintained by efforts to locate some of his piano music.

But my perusal of the absorbing notes was interrupted by a persistent and
insistent pounding coming from the speakers.  I am familiar with Alkan's
'Douze Etudes dans tous les tons mineurs', from which the four movements
of this self-styled Symphonie are taken, but the only recording I have
listened to of late was the Naxos orchestral release of the Karl Klindworth
arrangement played by Dmitry Feofanov under the title of Concerto for Piano
and Orchestra.  I was unprepared, therefore, for the nakedly powerful tones
of McCallum's piano playing which -- on several hearings now -- simply
knocks my socks off.  Stephanie McCallum, a native of Sydney, specializes
in out-of-the-way, complex, neglected and challenging repertoire and when
it comes to Alkan she really knows her stuff -- and struts it unashamedly!
She has also recorded the 'Douze Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs' Op.  35
for Tall Poppies (TP055) and gave what is believed to have been the first
public performance of Alkan's Chants (Op.  70) at her Wigmore Hall debut in
1982.

McCallum's playing of the Symphonie (the origin of which is very well
rationalised in the notes) returns this music, for me at least, to the
heights from which it should never have fallen.  Although it is powerful
and frenetic in places, the capacity for intimate communication is not lost
and McCallum's technique rises to and soars above the challenging nature
of Alkan's writing.  I have always thought that pianists approached Alkan
in the same way as Scriabin -- with more than a frisson of fear and
trepidation.  I cannot believe that to be the case here -- the pianist
simply devours the music with a degree of abandon all the more impressive
for the precision with which it is implemented.  Even the miniature Song of
the Mad Woman by the Sea-shore (an interesting five-minute 'filler' with
some real character) is exquisitely rendered.  One cannot but wish the
producers had squeezed a couple more of the Op.  31 studies on to the disc
which, at a little over 60 minutes, certainly has some room.  'J'etais
endormie, mais mon coeur veillait...' (No.  13) and 'Priere' (No.  25)
would have been ideal candidates.  But perhaps I'm just greedy!

Alkan and Magnard share more than music, for they are also celebrated (in
previous times more so than for their music) for their peculiar deaths;
Alkan dying under a fallen bookcase occasioned by reaching for a Talmud on
the top shelf (though current research doubts the veracity of this tale)
and Magnard killed by a German scouting party in his home outside Paris
in the very early days of the First World War.  They also share a common
ethos with regard to the piano, though Magnard's music does seem to be
less frenetic and somewhat more delicate than Alkan's.  To term it light,
however, would be a serious mistake.

Almost fify years separates the earliest and latest offerings on this
recording, with 'La chanson...' dating from 1847 and 'Promenades' from
1893.  How far music came in that half-century!  Not that I wish to decry
or denigrate Alkan's music -- far from it.  But I cannot help wondering why
such a wonderful suite of miniatures as Magnard's 'Promenades' has remained
so neglected for so long.  Each of the seven sketches is based on the
composer's impressions of one of his favorite haunts around the Parisian
area, from Rambouillet and the Trianon at Versailles to St.  Cloud and the
timeless elegance of the Bois de Boulogne.  Each has a different flavor,
partially emanating from the physical environs depicted by the music and
partially by the variety of styles adopted by the composer.  Ranging from
Romantic to Neoclassical and from impressionistic to a plainchant motif, I
hear hints of Bach, Bartok, Franck, Faure and even Poulenc and Stravinsky
in this music.  Listening to the disc as I write (for maybe the tenth time
this week) my next task is to find more recorded Magnard.

For lovers of the eclectic, for Francophiles, Alkanites and followers of
Romantic piano, this is a must have disc.  It has certainly leaped from
nowhere on to my "Finds of 99" list.

Tall Poppies Website is at www.moreinfo.com.au/tallpoppies and their discs
are distributed in Canada and the US by Albany Music Distributors and in
the UK by the Complete Record Company (sorry -- no Web addresses for either
in my database)

Cheers

Tim Mahon