Festival du Comminges, 10/08/2017
Beethoven : Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring"
Debussy : Violin Sonata
Franck : Violin Sonata
Stéphanie-Marie Degand, violin
François-Frédéric Guy, piano
The cancellation for health reasons of the originally scheduled violinist, Tedi Papavrami, brought as his replacement Stéphanie-Marie Degand, a French violinist with rather an impressive c.v., but previously unknown to me. This is not entirely surprising, as her career path has mainly led through Baroque music territory. She's a regular collaborator with the likes of Emmanuelle Haïm, William Christie or Christophe Rousset, and a founder-member of the Concert d'Astrée.
As anyone who has dipped into my blog with any degree of frequency will know, that's not my preferred area of interest when it comes to music, so I'm less than familiar with many of the musicians who specialise therein. However, she has also performed frequently with tonight's pianist, and was able to produce the programme intended for this evening's recital, and as that was a large part of the appeal of this concert for me, I was duly thankful.
For all her expertise in the 18th Century, her Beethoven offered nothing particularly special. It was a clean performance, nicely paced, and appropriately fresh, but the interest of the piece came from François-Frédéric Guy's subtle shading and varied dynamic range, rather than from anything Degand did.
The Debussy was a very different story, from Degand at least. Guy provided just as thoughtfully inflected, and beautifully tinted playing as in the Beethoven, but this time, she was right there with him, by turns dreamy and ironic, playful and shy, reserved, but in the right way for this enigmatic piece. Degand became more than a violinist, she became a voice, a colour, a landscape and a soundscape, a vision and a reverie.
I had hoped she would be able to sustain that kind of interpretation, and the rapport with her pianist, for the Franck, while making the adjustment of sound required, but it wasn't quite there. While the playing, for the most part, was very good, and the flights up into the heights generally had the right degree of slightly wild sweetness, her sound in the medium and low register lacked a little sensuality, a certain velvet quality of timbre that I like to hear. Still, the overall impression was satisfactory, and in any event Guy's contribution was consistently excellent, an object lesson in the art of partnership.
[Next : 7th October]
Debussy : Violin Sonata
Franck : Violin Sonata
Stéphanie-Marie Degand, violin
François-Frédéric Guy, piano
The cancellation for health reasons of the originally scheduled violinist, Tedi Papavrami, brought as his replacement Stéphanie-Marie Degand, a French violinist with rather an impressive c.v., but previously unknown to me. This is not entirely surprising, as her career path has mainly led through Baroque music territory. She's a regular collaborator with the likes of Emmanuelle Haïm, William Christie or Christophe Rousset, and a founder-member of the Concert d'Astrée.
As anyone who has dipped into my blog with any degree of frequency will know, that's not my preferred area of interest when it comes to music, so I'm less than familiar with many of the musicians who specialise therein. However, she has also performed frequently with tonight's pianist, and was able to produce the programme intended for this evening's recital, and as that was a large part of the appeal of this concert for me, I was duly thankful.
For all her expertise in the 18th Century, her Beethoven offered nothing particularly special. It was a clean performance, nicely paced, and appropriately fresh, but the interest of the piece came from François-Frédéric Guy's subtle shading and varied dynamic range, rather than from anything Degand did.
The Debussy was a very different story, from Degand at least. Guy provided just as thoughtfully inflected, and beautifully tinted playing as in the Beethoven, but this time, she was right there with him, by turns dreamy and ironic, playful and shy, reserved, but in the right way for this enigmatic piece. Degand became more than a violinist, she became a voice, a colour, a landscape and a soundscape, a vision and a reverie.
I had hoped she would be able to sustain that kind of interpretation, and the rapport with her pianist, for the Franck, while making the adjustment of sound required, but it wasn't quite there. While the playing, for the most part, was very good, and the flights up into the heights generally had the right degree of slightly wild sweetness, her sound in the medium and low register lacked a little sensuality, a certain velvet quality of timbre that I like to hear. Still, the overall impression was satisfactory, and in any event Guy's contribution was consistently excellent, an object lesson in the art of partnership.
[Next : 7th October]