Album Notes

In honor of Fauré: Music by the master and his pupils played by Vladimir Valjarević

Heiner Stadler and Labor Records announce the release of a new CD devoted to the piano of Gabriel Fauré and his pupils. Fauré, who taught at the Paris Conservatoire, numbered some of the most gifted composers of the turn of the century among his students including Maurice Ravel, Georges Enesco, Florent Schmitt and Charles Koechlin. These four and three others were invited by the French publisher Durand to contribute pieces in honor of their teacher, most of them based on musical anagrams of his name. In effect, these tributes pick up where the master himself left off. This interaction of new and old – part confrontation, part reinterpretation – sets off the familiar sound of the older, almost classical works, giving them a fresh context. The new and the old are juxtaposed so that they illuminate each and this is the fundamental idea behind the Labor series of tribute albums.

On this recording by the young Bosnian virtuoso, Vladimir Valjarević, the pieces written in homage alternate with music by Fauré himself including two of his Preludes, three of the Songs without Words (Romance sans Paroles) and several stylized dance pieces including a Valse-Caprice and a Mazurka. Also participating in this recording are the pianist Ivailo Nanev and the violinist Svetla Kaltcheva.

TRACK LISTING

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
1. Improvisation in C sharp minor
From: Huit pièces brèves Op 84

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
2. Louis-François-Marie Aubert (1877-1968)
Moderato

Gabriel Fauré
3. Impromptu No. 2 in F minor Op 31

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
4. Paul Émile Ladmirault (1877-1944)
Allegro moderato / Espressivo e poco rubato

Gabriel Fauré
5. Fugue in A minor
From: Huit pi èces brèves Op 84

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
6. Georges Enesco (1881-1955)
Molto moderato e cantabile

Gabriel Fauré
7. Mazurka in B flat major Op 32

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
8. Florent Schmitt (1870-1958)
Rapide

Gabriel Fauré
Trois Romances sans paroles Op 17
9. No. 1 Andante quasi allegretto
10. No. 2 Allegro molto
11. No. 3 Andante moderato

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
12. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Berceuse
pour Violon et Piano
Svetla Kaltcheva, violin

Gabriel Fauré
13. Prélude No. 1 in D flat major
14. Prélude No. 5 in D minor
From: Neuf Préludes Op 103

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
15. Roger Ducasse (1873-1954)
Díune extreme lenteur
for two pianos
Ivailo Nanev, second piano

Gabriel Fauré
16. Valse-Caprice No. 1 in A major Op 30

Hommage Musical à Gabriel Fauré
17. Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)
Andante, calme e très expressif


REVIEW / Fanfare

"Here are piquant sidelights on Ravel and Enescu, while a small but fetching taste of Ladmirault or Aubert may prompt a lifelong follow-up. Sound is warm and spacious, but detailed and immediate. Informed liner notes by the redoubtable Eric Salzman, with blurbs on each piece, confect a final elegance.
ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECOMMENDED."
- Adrian Corleonis, FANFARE


REVIEW / All Music Guide

Here is an interesting program: a juxtaposition of the music of a composer with that of his students. Piano works by George Enescu, Charles Koechlin, and others, plus a Berceuse for violin and piano by Maurice Ravel, are interspersed with piano pieces by Gabriel Fauré. Even more interesting, these pieces by his students, created at the request of the magazine La Revue musicale, are based on a motive that musically corresponds to the name Fauré. Florent Schmitt and Ravel went even further by also using Fauré's first name in their pieces. One can hear the beginnings of the diverging paths composers were taking regarding tonality in the homage works. The Aubert and Ravel pieces have that impressionistic, watercolor softness in their harmonies, while the Enescu and Schmitt head toward more adventuresome harmonies. Most of the pieces have a pensive quality to their character, as much of Fauré's music has here. It's the dances -- e.g. Ladmirault's Allego moderato and Fauré's Valse-Caprice No. 1 -- and Schmitt's invigorating Rapide, all performed spiritedly by Valjarevic, that break up the reveries. Valjarevic plays with a beautiful lyricism and a wide variety of tones and colorings, perceptively applied with care. The hearty ending of Fauré's Valse-Caprice is followed by the ringing bell-like theme of Koechlin's fugue. Fauré's piano music is well-represented here, ranging from early works such as the Romances sans paroles that are clearly modeled on works by Chopin and Mendelssohn, to a couple of his later Preludes, Op. 103, where the characteristics that distinguish his songs are heard. It is a treat to hear the all-too-often-neglected piano music of Fauré, wonderfully performed and combined with intriguing tidbits from other composers, which otherwise might never have been heard.
~ Patsy Morita, ALL MUSIC GUIDE


BIO / Vladimir Valjarević

Vladimir Valjarevic was born in 1973 in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the former Yugoslavia). He studied at the Belgrade Conservatory and came to the United States in 1993 to continue his studies at the Mannes College of Music as a scholarship student of Pavlina Dokovska and Vladimir Feltsman. He is a prizewinner in the Città di Marsala and Città di Stresa International Piano Competitions and has performed in Yugoslavia, Italy, France, The Netherlands and the United States. He is currently on the Mannes faculty while pursuing a major career as a concert artist.