Emma Boynet - The Complete Solo 78rpm Recordings & Faure LPs

Regular price $21.99
Label
APR
Release Date
February 5, 2021
Format
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    Featuring
    • COMPOSER
      VARIOUS
    • PERFORMER
      Emma Boynet
    Product Details
    • RELEASE DATE
      February 05, 2021
    • UPC
      5024709160334
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      APR6033
    • LABEL
      APR
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
    Works
    1. 4 Impromptus, Op. 90, D. 899: No. 3 in G-Flat Major

      Composer: Franz Schubert

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    2. Rondo brillante in E-Flat Major, Op. 62, J. 252

      Composer: Carl Maria von Weber

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    3. Nocturne No. 4 in E-Flat Major, Op. 36

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    4. Impromptu No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 31

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    5. 4 Piezas españolas: No. 4. Andaluza

      Composer: Manuel de Falla

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    6. Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, BWV 711 (arr. L. Perrachio for piano)

      Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    7. Piano Sonata No. 58 in C Major, Hob.XVI:48: II. Rondo: Presto

      Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    8. 10 Pièces pittoresques: No. 6. Idylle

      Composer: Emmanuel Chabrier

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    9. Bourrée fantasque (version for piano)

      Composer: Emmanuel Chabrier

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    10. Barcarolle No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 66

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    11. Préludes, Book 1: No. 4. Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir

      Composer: Claude Debussy

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    12. 3 Pieces formant suite de concert, Op. 40: No. 2. Nocturne en forme de valse (version for solo piano)

      Composer: Gabriel Pierné

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    13. Nocturne, Op. 90

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    14. Pastels, Op. 24: No. 3. Feux-follets, "Will-of-the-Wisp"

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    15. Baigneuses au soleil, "Souvenir de Banyuls-sur-mer"

      Composer: Déodat de Sévérac

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    16. No. 9. La marchande d'eau fraîche

      Composer: Jacques Ibert

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    17. No. 2. Le petit âne blanc

      Composer: Jacques Ibert

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    18. 6 Danses et airs anciens, Op. 76: No. 5. Largo (after L. da Vinci)

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    19. Minuetto vivace (after P. Castrucci)

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    20. No. 2. Air (after B. Pasquini)

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    21. No. 4. Sicilienne et Gavotte (after P. Castrucci)

      Composer: Isidore Philipp

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    22. Barcarolle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 26

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    23. Barcarolle No. 2 in G Major, Op. 41

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    24. Barcarolle No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op. 42

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    25. Barcarolle No. 4 in A-Flat Major, Op. 44

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    26. Barcarolle No. 5 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 66

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    27. Barcarolle No. 6 in E-Flat Major, Op. 70

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    28. No. 1 in A-Flat Major

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    29. No. 2 in A Minor

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    30. No. 3 in A-Flat Major

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    31. 8 Pièces brèves, Op. 84: No. 5. Improvisation

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    32. Clair de lune, Op. 46, No. 2 (arr. A. Perilhou for piano)

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    33. Nocturne No. 1 in E-Flat Minor, Op. 33, No. 1

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    34. Nocturne No. 2 in B Major, Op. 33, No. 2

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    35. Nocturne No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 33, No. 3

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    36. Nocturne No. 4 in E-Flat Major, Op. 36

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    37. Nocturne No. 6 in D-Flat Major, Op. 63

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet

    38. Nocturne No. 7 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 74

      Composer: Gabriel Fauré

      Performer: Emma Boynet


Parisian, Emma Boynet (1891–1974) studied with Isidor Philipp at the Conservatoire and became an established part of the local music scene in the 1920s and 30s. She was one of the few French pianists to find success in the USA, travelling there for the first time in the company of her former teacher in 1934, and as a result, made several albums for Victor in New York, including a five-disc 78rpm album entitled ‘French Piano Music’. Her career seems to have faltered in the 1950s but not before she made two highly regarded (but now rare) Faure LPs which have become collectors’ items. We are delighted to reissue them here.

REVIEW:

I had never heard of the French pianist Emma Boynet (1891-1974) before this remarkable release came to my attention and hooked me for life. Boynet studied with the legendary Isidor Philipp, with whom she remained associated throughout his long life. During the 1930s and ’40s Boynet made frequent concert and radio appearances in the United States, yet kept a low profile in her final decade. More importantly, she made extraordinary recordings. APR has reissued on two generously filled CDs all of Boynet’s solo 78s, together with the contents of two all-Fauré LPs recorded for Vox in 1950 and 1952.

If Boynet had left us nothing else, the sheer insouciance and effortless mastery of her 1932 Pathé Weber Rondo brillante (sound clip) assures her legendary status, although her sultry Falla Andaluza is nothing to sneeze at. She takes Schubert’s G-flat Impromptu at an appropriately alla breve tempo. True, she dashes through the Rondo finale of Haydn’s two-movement C major sonata like a bat out of hell, yet what staggering control and timing!

Apparently all of the selections in Boynet’s 1938 RCA Victor French Music Anthology were first takes, including an audaciously winged and imaginatively phrased Chabrier Bourrée fantasque that makes everyone else’s sound thick and clumsy. Naturally she plays Philipp’s charming Nocturne and scintillating Feux-follets with total affection and style. Boynet subjects Debussy’s Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir from Preludes Book I to capricious tempo shifts, and arpeggiates chords at random; it’s a curious reading that doesn’t convince. However, Boynet and Fauré merge as one.

She understands and internalizes the composer’s textural transparency and intricately wrought counterpoint, while projecting the melodies so that they move over the bar lines. As a result, some listeners may feel that her animation in the Fifth and Sixth Barcarolles borders on impatience, a factor arguably mitigated by the Vox LPs’ dry sonics and less-than resplendent concert grand. On the other hand, her Vox Fourth Nocturne is smoother and more lyrically unfolding than in her earlier 78 rpm version. And Boynet’s spacious, poetic Vox accounts of the great Sixth and Seventh Nocturnes count among the Fauré piano discography’s treasures.

Frédéric Gaussin’s extensive annotations are as scholarly and informative as one could wish, not to mention Mark Obert-Thorn’s world-class transfers. In all, a significant addition to APR’s ongoing French Piano School reissues, and an absolute must for pianophiles.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)