Chausson reviews

The first notes tell you that you are listening to a class act: the Schubert Ensemble have had only a few changes in the line-up in over 30 years, and there’s complete unanimity of intent. Intonation is precise, rubato absolutely co-ordinated, vibrato carefully graded, and the texture immaculately balanced, the result of both works having been in the Ensemble’s repertoire for a long time.

This is an exuberantly assured debut. Violinist Callum Smart first came to prominence as the winner, aged just 13, of the strings category in the 2010 BBC Young Musician competition. This well crafted recording suggests that such early success is no flash in the pan. The three works provide plenty of scope for the clear lyricism of Smart’s playing, while he comfortably inhabits their markedly different soundworlds.

The Korngold Violin Concerto, having evaded the mainstream for decades, has become a firm favourite among younger soloists; Arabella Steinbacher’s is the latest of numerous new recordings to emerge in the past few years. Unfortunately, despite her technically excellent playing, this account falls into all the work’s usual traps, mostly relating to its emotional zeitgeist, or a misunderstanding of it.

Severely bitten by Wagner, even imitating Tristan, Chausson’s reflective Arthurian epic employs lighter, more Gallic textures, but remains melodically more worthy than exciting. Michael Scott Rohan

Don’t be misled by the title! By far the majority of the songs here are not chansons, but mélodies. That’s to say, they deal with profound emotions, and both Lynne Dawson and Julius Drake perform them as such. No whiff, I’m glad to say, of condescending treatment as though of the Lied’s little sister. At the same time the songs that are truly chansons, such as Chabrier’s ‘Villanelle des petits canards’ and Poulenc’s ‘Nous voulons une petite soeur’, are thrown off with delightful wit and charm.