“Les Six”, the group of young composers working in Paris from the early 1920s is the center of this album, with their first collaborative effort giving it its name.
“L’Album des Six” contains one short piece from each of this group of composers – Auric, Durey, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and Milhaud – resulting in an interesting combination of styles, compositional technique and pianistic writing, all of which fully embraced by pianist Corinna Simon.
This opening suite is followed by additional groups or singular short pieces by the members of “Les Six”, with highlights including Francis Poulenc’s Mélancolie and Third Novelette, played with heart-warming affection.
Simon’s handling of this French repertoire is impressive in its subtlety; Even when percussive elements are called for, as in some of Honegger’s “Sept Pièces Brèves” or Georges Auric’s “Trois Pastorales À Darius Milhaud”, the basic tone of her piano is never aggressive, maintaining lovely roundness. Her pedal work is superb too, as in Germaine Tailleferre’s six works which close the album. Tailleferre’s Impromptu and Romance are true revelations, still hinting at Faure and early Debussy but also highly original.
A nicely planned, fascinating program, with a superb performance to match. The recording, made at Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin is at Sony’s best technical standards, making this a highly desirable release.
