Over to France this week for a concert by the legendary Jean-Phillipe Collard in recital at the 2013 Piano Season festival in Lyon. The concert was recorded at the Salle Rameau by the always-present/ever-faithful Radio France Musique on October 11th and features music of Faurè, Wagner, Liszt and Chopin.
He is considered one of the greatest exponents of the French school. Collard made his American debut in 1973 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. The performance was praised by the San Francisco Chronicle.
A prolific recording artist with more than thirty titles to his credit, Collard’s discography includes Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux and the Brahms Hungarian Dances (with pianist Michel Beroff), both named Stereo Review’s Record of the Year in their respective years; the Ravel concerti with Lorin Maazel and the Orchestre National de France, cited by Gramophone magazine as Best Concerto Recording; and the Chausson Concert, Op. 21 (with Augustin Dumay and the Muir String Quartet) which won the Grand Prix du Disque. He has recorded all five Saint-Saëns piano concerti with André Previn and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the first recordings of Mozart’s arrangements of the six French melodies with baritone José van Dam. Other recordings include a disc of Chopin’s Ballades and his third sonata, and a Liszt recital disc including the B minor sonata.
He is the Artistic Director of the Flâneries musicales de Reims.
Here’s what’s on the player:
1. Gabriel Fauré
Barcarolle No. 1 in A minor Op.26 (1881)
Nocturne No. 6 in D flat major Op.63 (1894)
Ballade in F sharp major Op.19 (1877-1879)2. Franz Liszt
St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Water No. 2, Ext. Two legends of S 175 (1863)
3. Franz Liszt / Wagner
Death of Isolde S 447 (1859)4. Chopin
24 Preludes Op.28 (1838, 1839)5. (encore) Robert Schumann / Liszt Widmung (Devotion – Rückert)
Jean-Philippe Collard , piano
This is a really nice and thoroughly enjoyable concert. And Collard is in top form.
Guaranteed to take the blood-pressure down several notches while listening.
Enjoy.
