Elena Ballario, Camilla Patria, Franco Mezzena, Sergio Patria – Magnard: Cello Sonata, Op. 20, Piano Trio, Op. 18 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:50 minutes | 708 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
Albéric Magnard, born in Paris in 1865, was a pupil of Dubois, Guiraud, Massenet and D’Indy at the Paris Conservatoire, and he frequented the circle of César Franck. In 1896 he became a teacher at Paris’s Schola Cantorum. Then, from 1904, he settled in the countryside on his estate at Manoir des Fontaines in Baron (Oise), where he died in 1914, shot by German troops while attempting to defend the property, which was set on fire along with many of his as yet unpublished compositions. In addition to four symphonies, he is also the author of operas, but chamber music is the genre in which he best expressed himself and into which he poured the influence of Beethoven and the counterpoint of the Schola Cantorum. His last chamber work, the Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.20 is among his most significant compositions. Composed between 1908 and 1910, it is structured in four movements like all his chamber works, betraying his devotion to German contemporaries and in opposition to the French tendency for three movements in symphonies and instrumental compositions.
Completed in 1905, the Piano Trio Op.18 was first performed at the Salle Aéolian in Paris in January 1906. Also in four movements, it presents more measured writing than the Cello Sonata or Violin Sonata. The dialogue between the three instruments is refined and balanced without any break in interaction.
These are works by a brilliant composer faithful to tradition. On the whole the music can be described as an innovative and surprising, certainly deserving of wider recognition.
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Franco Mezzena & Elena Ballario – La Recherche (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:14 minutes | 843 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Odradek Records
A sumptuous album of French and Belgian music for violin and piano, performed with unique intimacy and poetry by long-term partners Franco Mezzena and Elena Ballario.
Cesar Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major is his most celebrated work, a perfect example of cyclical form resulting in music of ardour and spirit, the two protagonists engaged in a lively and exhilarating dialogue that culminates in a thrilling finale. Franck had promised a violin sonata to Cosima Wagner, but it was Eugene Ysaye’s request for a wedding piece that finally galvanised him to compose the work.
Debussy’s Violin Sonata was his last complete composition, written in the shadow of the First World War. The work reflects some of the internal tussle the composer was experiencing during the conflict, but with his characteristic fluidity and nuanced harmonies. Debussy said of the work: “Through a quite humane contradiction, it is full of a joyous tumult”.