Poulenc
Cello Sonata, Op. 143; Sonata for Piano four hands, FP8 etc
Pascal Rogé (piano), Lidy Blijdorp (cello), Elena Font (piano)
Onyx ONYX4271 65 mins
Pascal Rogé has long been the doyen interpreter of French piano music, with his shimmering gentle hues and deft touch.
Poulenc’s music though has a brittle, dark edge – a sadness that Rogé evokes with equal mastery. The Cello Sonata is a case in point. Here the cello figuration skits along with brilliance – flawlessly delivered by Lidy Blijdorp, who negotiates the seriously tricky figuration with apparent ease.
The sadness appears in the exquisite ‘Cavatine’. Sweetly nostalgic one moment, turbulent and tortured the next – emotions eloquently etched by both these artists. ‘Ballabile’ returns us back to the quicksilver figuration, dancing across the page with scampering virtuosity. A fleeting dark shadow heralds the opening of the Finale with eerie harmonics, then abruptly we have shards of sunshine cascading into the invention – a perfect depiction with filigree-light articulation injected with beckoning melodic fragments.
A similar melancholy imbues the Sonata for Two Pianos, the Balinese bell-like chimes from Rogé and Elena Font setting the scene in the opening Prologue. The chordal incantation at the beginning of the Andante lirico is equally troubled, as is the ensuing melodic line captured here in a performance depicting the regret and reflection of the drama.
Poulenc’s earlier works, such as the Sonata for Piano four hands and Mouvements Perpétuels follow the more light-hearted milieu of Les Six. Yet there is still an edge to the sonata with a pulsating rhythmic ostinato projected in this performance. Font is equally compelling in her intoxicating and varied timbres of the Mouvement Perpétuels.
