Notes and Editorial Reviews
FRANCK
Prélude, fugue et variation. Fantaisie,
op. 16.
Cantabile.
L’Organiste
: Selections.
Violin Sonata
•
Vilija Poskute, Tomas Daukantas (pn)
•
ARS 38 078 (57:56)
Transcriptions offer artists usually excluded from a given repertoire a chance to have their say about it. Vilija Poskute and Tomas Daukantas bring a straightforward briskness to these
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pieces, which may well persuade one that Franck’s piquant charms are simply too fetching to remain the exclusive preserve of organists or the resuscitators of the harmonium. If the duo’s four-hand arrangements of the brief harmonium pieces—whose originals lie comfortably beneath two hands—suggest taking matters to an extreme, in the upshot they underscore the virtues of the entire program, whether for four hands on one instrument or the dialogue of two instruments—clarity. Freed from the vagaries of individual organs, harmoniums, venues, and their quirks in recording, the cogency of Franck’s musical thought, his sinuous interplay of parts, stands forth with an often saucy immediacy, no longer swaddled in an aura of churchiness. Only in the Cantabile does one feel the absence of the organ’s mystic radiance.
On the other hand, the duo’s Violin Sonata is underplayed. Cortot’s transcription puts some of the ripest harmonies and richest melodic tendrils in the standard repertoire within pianistic reach while exceeding the expressive grasp evinced by Poskute and Daukantas. An interpretive opportunity is lost to safely correct reading, reducing the arrangement to a mere curiosity. But it is a poor performance indeed of this work that affords no pleasure, and the present run-through is still far from that nadir.
Sound is close without clotting, plummy yet detailed. Recommended.
FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis
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Works on This Recording
1.
Prelude, Fugue and Variation for Organ in B minor, Op. 18 by César Franck
Performer:
Vilija Poskute (Piano),
Tomas Daukantas (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1862; France
Notes: Arranged for two pianos by E. Bartlett and R. Robertson.
2.
L'organiste: Excerpt(s) by César Franck
Performer:
Vilija Poskute (Piano),
Tomas Daukantas (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: France
Notes: 11 selections from L'organiste, Volume 1, M 41 by César Franck arranged for two pianos by Vilija Poskute and Tomas Daukantas.
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