One need hear only the early, delicately wistful Nocturne for violin and piano (a cello version of which, by Fournier and Lush on a ten-inch HMV 78, I still treasure) to appreciate the exceptional gifts of Lili Boulanger, who unlike her eminent elder sister Nadia was spared for only 24 years of life. Yet in that brief time she attained an extraordinary precocity and maturity—she could read music at two and a half, and at the age of 19 won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome, the first woman musician ever to do so (Nadia had won only a Second). Her lack of more general recognition has been attributed to the fact that her music soon shed an initial Debussyan influence and, because of the enforced isolation of her illness, stood apart from the accepted style of her contemporaries. Her bold harmonic thought and pungency (as in the violin D'un matin de printemps) bring Florent Schmitt to mind, especially in the most substantial work here, the dramatic psalm Du fond de l'abime, which has a gripping emotional intensity. The unconventionality of scoring that this employs is also to be found in the stirring Psalm 24 (brass, organ, harp and timpani with the chorus) and the profoundly troubled Pie Jesu (treble voice, organ, harp and string quartet). To my mind the most remarkable work here is Psalm 129, which goes from trenchant bitterness to the most beatific ending—a fine setting of considerable power.

The performances are directed with obvious commitment by Markevitch, and if the singing is commendable rather than polished or always absolutely secure, and the 1958 recording undeniably shallow, both are tolerable; the later recording of Menuhin and Curzon is on the edgy side, but the quality of the performances outweighs any such shortcomings, and the vitality of both artists in the little ''Cortege'' is irresistible.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [8/1992]