French Connection (2005)

The title of this 2005 EMI release, French Connection, is somewhat confusing since it leads one to expect special linkages between the four French composers -- Schmitt, Milhaud, Jolivet, and Emmanuel -- and the Russian Shostakovich and the Brazilian Villa-Lobos. However, Shostakovich's two Waltzes and Villa-Lobos' Chôros No. 2 are so short and slight as to be dismissed from cross-cultural speculation; the remaining works make the issue of French connections all too obvious. This album, then, is just a grab bag of pieces for ... Read More

The title of this 2005 EMI release, French Connection, is somewhat confusing since it leads one to expect special linkages between the four French composers -- Schmitt, Milhaud, Jolivet, and Emmanuel -- and the Russian Shostakovich and the Brazilian Villa-Lobos. However, Shostakovich's two Waltzes and Villa-Lobos' Chôros No. 2 are so short and slight as to be dismissed from cross-cultural speculation; the remaining works make the issue of French connections all too obvious. This album, then, is just a grab bag of pieces for winds and piano, so varied in character, style, and techniques that it is better not to rationalize the program, but to note instead its salient points. Milhaud's Sonata for flute, oboe, clarinet and piano, Op. 47, is the strongest selection -- bracing in its dissonances, probing in tone, and adventurous in its explorations of polytonality and novel sonorities. Jolivet's Sonatine for flute and clarinet and Emmanuel's Sonate for flute, clarinet and piano, Op. 11, are the next most... Read Less