NEW RELEASES / NOUVEAUTÉS

The refined, discreet world of Gabriel Fauré’s Barcarolles will not yield up its secrets to just anyone. 

Jean-Philippe Collard is revisiting his first musical loves, and a composer, Fauré. The story behind this new recording is unusual: while listening to his car radio, Collard came across a pianist playing the First Barcarolle. He found the performance intolerable and detested the pianist’s constant changes of tempo, until the presenter announced that it was his own recording from 1970 . . . Dismayed by what he had just heard, he realised that he had to work through the cycle anew and propose a new version. 

Scriabin, the creator of unique sound worlds, initially followed in the footsteps of Chopin. Jean-Philippe Collard explores this Romantic vein by shedding new light on his Piano Concerto, a delicate piece but by no means devoid of passion, which he juxtaposes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Concerto. Two works from the Russian repertory that are still neglected today, yet which possess irresistible charm and freshness.

The refined, discreet world of Gabriel Fauré’s Barcarolles will not yield up its secrets to just anyone.
The pianist Jean-Philippe Collard, who has been away from the concert hall and the recording studios for too long, is finally back on the concert platform and on disc. And he is also revisiting his first musical loves, and a composer, Fauré, whose cycle of Barcarolles he has recorded previously, along with the rest of his piano works, his complete chamber music, and a selection of songs with Frederica von Stade. With time, his art has grown simpler and lighter, finding a freshness and spontaneity reflecting a radiant maturity.