The Guardian, 6 May 2010 ★★★
This is an intriguing collection of César Franck’s five works involving a solo piano, all featuring the up-and-coming French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Two of them are rarely heard, and another is a genuine oddity. The familiar pieces are the Prélude, Choral et Fugue for piano alone, and the Variations Symphoniques, for piano and orchestra, both of which are heard in concert and recorded regularly enough for Chamayou’s perfectly adequate but under-characterised performances to face stiff competition. But he demonstrates that both the solo piano Prélude, Aria et Final and Les Djinns, a compact symphonic poem for piano and orchestra based upon a Victor Hugo poem, deserve to be heard far more frequently. Meanwhile, the texturally rather awkward Prélude, Fugue et Variation, for piano and harmonium, in which Chamayou is joined by Olivier Latry, provides a reminder that Franck was an organist first and foremost, and then a pianist. Andrew Clements
The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2010 ★★★★★
César Franck was no slouch when it came to writing for the piano. The Prélude, Choral et Fugue has long been among the keyboard repertoire’s toughest challenges, and here its sturdy counterpoint, elaborate flourishes, ripe textures and serpentine harmonies are conveyed with impressive panache and interpretative seriousness by the young French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Franck’s model was clearly Bach, his inspiration the organ loft. But Franck clothed any baroque exemplars in a cloak of richly romantic hues and the diapason of the keyboard writing, if at times sounding as though Franck might have conceived it while seated at his Cavaillé-Coll instrument in Paris’s church of St Clotilde, is vigorously pianistic. Even more so is the piano obbligato part in the exciting, nervy symphonic poem “Les Djinns” and in the once-popular Variations Symphoniques. Strangest of all the works on this disc is the Prélude, Fugue et Variation combining piano with the nasal wheeze of the harmonium, but it sounds charming and completes a fascinating compendium of Franck’s music. Geoffrey Norris
This is an intriguing collection of César Franck’s five works involving a solo piano, all featuring the up-and-coming French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Two of them are rarely heard, and another is a genuine oddity. The familiar pieces are the Prélude, Choral et Fugue for piano alone, and the Variations Symphoniques, for piano and orchestra, both of which are heard in concert and recorded regularly enough for Chamayou’s perfectly adequate but under-characterised performances to face stiff competition. But he demonstrates that both the solo piano Prélude, Aria et Final and Les Djinns, a compact symphonic poem for piano and orchestra based upon a Victor Hugo poem, deserve to be heard far more frequently. Meanwhile, the texturally rather awkward Prélude, Fugue et Variation, for piano and harmonium, in which Chamayou is joined by Olivier Latry, provides a reminder that Franck was an organist first and foremost, and then a pianist. Andrew Clements
The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2010 ★★★★★
César Franck was no slouch when it came to writing for the piano. The Prélude, Choral et Fugue has long been among the keyboard repertoire’s toughest challenges, and here its sturdy counterpoint, elaborate flourishes, ripe textures and serpentine harmonies are conveyed with impressive panache and interpretative seriousness by the young French pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Franck’s model was clearly Bach, his inspiration the organ loft. But Franck clothed any baroque exemplars in a cloak of richly romantic hues and the diapason of the keyboard writing, if at times sounding as though Franck might have conceived it while seated at his Cavaillé-Coll instrument in Paris’s church of St Clotilde, is vigorously pianistic. Even more so is the piano obbligato part in the exciting, nervy symphonic poem “Les Djinns” and in the once-popular Variations Symphoniques. Strangest of all the works on this disc is the Prélude, Fugue et Variation combining piano with the nasal wheeze of the harmonium, but it sounds charming and completes a fascinating compendium of Franck’s music. Geoffrey Norris
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