Paul Paray Fantaisie for Piano & Orchestra

Started by Alan Howe, Wednesday 09 August 2017, 18:32

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Alan Howe

Wednesday 09 August 2017, 18:32

Alan Howe

#1
Wednesday 09 August 2017, 18:35
Review:

Paul Paray was known to the world as a conductor of international stature and renown. Early on, Paray pursued a career of composing only to abandon it once his conducting career heated up, as did Dimitri Mitropoulos, Igor Markevitch, Bruno Walter, and many other conductors throughout history. Nevertheless, among these famous names only Markevitch seems to have been so intensely devoted to creating as sizeable, and extraordinary, a compositional output as Paray. Outside of his impressive Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc, which Paray recorded in 1956, to date little to nothing of his music has managed to make it out of the manuscript stage since that time. One of Paray's former students and a priest with the Assumption Grotto within the Archdiocese of Detroit, Father Eduard Perrone has been working to change that through recordings on his Grotto Productions label, and in working with the Paris-based publishing house Editions Jobert. Paul Paray: Complete Works for Solo Piano is just that; all 24 of Paray's pieces for piano, including his Fantaisie for piano and orchestra from 1909, a work that easily outstrips Debussy's early Fantaisie in terms of quality and inventiveness. There isn't anything on Paul Paray: Complete Works for Solo Piano that seems like minor-league, wanna-be French Impressionism -- Paray, it turns out, was a master of the genre.

Brazilian pianist Flavio Varani is coming to these Paray works for the first time. Varani plays them with authority, as if he's known them his whole life long; in piece after piece, Varani never sounds less than just right in Paray's music. Varani's inspiration does not flag here and there, nor does one get the sense that he is more familiar with some pieces and not others. Father Perrone may have missed his calling -- the Assumption Grotto Orchestra, made up of moonlighting Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians, sounds terrific and yields sensitive results to Perrone's conducting. The recording, made with the odd "Aachen Head" microphones, is surprisingly realistic and the acoustics in the Detroit Grotto are appealingly friendly to the music. Paul Paray: Complete Works for Solo Piano is not a particularly easy recording to find, but those who decide not to wait for the majors to get around to this incredible music and obtain this release will be amply rewarded for their effort.
http://www.allmusic.com/album/paul-paray-complete-works-for-solo-piano-fantaisie-for-piano-orchestra-mw0001382917


Alan Howe

#3
Thursday 10 August 2017, 08:48
Has anyone heard the Fantaisie, though?

eschiss1

#4
Thursday 10 August 2017, 23:58
Not yet. The symphony/mass recording streams over NML so I'll try to get a listen to it later (I seem to recall seeing a review of it years ago, or am I thinking of a review of Dorati's music on BIS? ...! I'm much too easily confused). If the fantaisie is on YouTube or somesuch will try to get a listen to that- thanks for pointing me in that direction...

chill319

#5
Sunday 13 August 2017, 02:56
Nothing yet on U2b, thank goodness (the two symphonies are there, though). Snippets can be heard on the CD Baby website. https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/paulparay5

Based on the snippet, Paray in 1909 sounds more influenced by Schola cantorum composers than by Debussy. Nothing wrong with that. They could boast quite the line-up: Dukas, d'Indy, Magnard, Roussel, etc.

eschiss1

#6
Sunday 13 August 2017, 22:56
Diverse line-up, that (consider late Roussel (and also, _he_ taught some fellow named Martinů, didn't he? :) ), and Ropartz belongs there too I imagine) - not bad at _all_ for an institution that's received quite a lot of criticism too. ... Anyway. (Sorry...)
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