1846: Dernière Année à Nohant
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CHOPIN
1846: Dernière Année à Nohant
Emmanuelle Bertrand (cello) Pascal Amoyel (piano)
[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 25 March 2015
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After a relationship lasting some ten years, the last few of which were stormy, Frédéric Chopin finally separated from George Sand in July 1847. It was on her estate at Nohant that, over seven summers, he had composed or completed the core of his oeuvre: the Fantaisie Op.49, a dozen mazurkas, the Berceuse, several nocturnes, two of the ballades, two of the scherzos, his last two sonatas, the Trois Nouvelles Études, three impromptus, three waltzes, two polonaises, among others. The summer of 1846, the last he spent in the Berry region, saw the birth of his final masterpieces for it was at Nohant that he composed, started, or finished the last pieces to be printed in his lifetime: 'miniatures' like the Mazurkas Op.63 and the Waltzes Op.64, or pieces with a more elaborate structure such as the Barcarolle Op.60, the Nocturnes Op.62a and the Sonata for piano and cello Op.65, the final published opuses that are brought together in this programme.
Pascal Amoyel and Emmanuelle Bertrand plunge us into the heart of those few months before the couple's separation, when the ailing Chopin did not yet know that he was leaving his musical testament.
"Their performance manages to fashion a perfectly lucid path through the musical thickets of the sonata's first movement, which can sometimes seem too overloaded with invention...It's a lovely anthology, beautifully thought out and always executed with perceptive care." The Guardian, 25th February 2015 ****
"The recording is slightly distant, giving Pascal Amoyel's sound a soft-grained texture...It also means Emmanuelle Bertrand's fragile cello line is occasionally swallowed up in the first movement of the Sonata. That's not to suggest that her approach lacks vigour: there's plenty of mercurial vivacity here, even if her instrument cannot always deliver the volume." (BBC Music April 2015)
Tracks:
Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60
Mazurkas Op. 63 Nos. 1-3
Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65
Waltz No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute Waltz'
Waltz No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2
Waltz No. 8 in A flat major, Op. 64 No. 3
Mazurka No. 45 in A minor, Op. 67 No. 4
Two Nocturnes Op. 62
