Integrale Studio [17cd]

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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0094638469926 Number Of Discs: 17 Release Date: 2007-10-29
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: The doyenne of French pianists Comment: In her day Marcelle Meyer was the doyenne of French piano. Cortot admired her and she performed with the likes of Ravel and Poulenc. She had a vast repertoire that extended from the Baroque to contemporary composers like Stravinsky and she left a considerable recorded legacy. The recordings she made have not always been as readily available as one might wish, so it is a great pleasure to be able to get one's hands on this set of her recordings from 1927 to 1957. At a total of seventeen discs, this is a fascinating collection as well as a fantastic bargain. The composers represented include Chabrier, Debussy, Ravel, Bach, Couperin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Rossini, Schubert and Stravinsky. There is also a sonata by Oscar Espla, which was a new name to me. Almost all of the recordings are of the solo repertoire (there are no chamber pieces and only two Mozart concerti). There is also some reduplication of music Meyer recorded more than once: this applies to a lesser extent to the Couperin and Rameau, and to a slightly greater extent to the Scarlatti sonatas. If you have never heard her, Meyer's playing was wonderfully elegant and fluid. Her touch was subtle, her phrasing refined and her pedalling gorgeous - and only occasionally more generous than modern tastes tend to allow. There are times when one would wish for more fire and a greater sense of dynamic contrast, but it is hard not to be won over by her intelligent and musical interpretations. There are some real treasures to be found in the set. I fell in love with her Rameau and Couperin over ten years ago, and her performance of these composers on the modern piano has not been surpassed even as contemporary players like Angela Hewitt or the excellent Alexandre Tharaud have claimed their compositions back from the harpsichord. The shades she conjures from the piano in the Debussy and Ravel are most seductive, and her Scarlatti has a real sense of sparkle to it. There is not so much Chabrier available on disc, and her performances of some of his works for piano are graceful and sensuous. The sound is generally good, though, as one might expect, the remasters from the late 1940s and the 1950s come up more satisfactorily than those from the 1920s. The set should be self-recommending for anyone interested in the great pianists of the past. More Reviews