Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800)
Trois Sonates pour piano, op. 4
Trois Sonates pour piano, op. 5
Trois Sonates pour piano, op. 6

Marek Toporowski, pianoforte

Les trois opus de sonates pour piano de Hyacinthe Jadin qui nous sont proposés sur ces deux cds constituent l'intégrale de sa production en ce domaine sans accompagnement optionnel de violon. A l'exception de deux d'entre elles, toutes sont en trois mouvements. Leur variété est étonnante : si les variations de l'andante initial de l'op. 5 n° 2 font allusion à J. Haydn, les op. 5 n° 1 et 3 en mineur sont de style 'Sturm und Drang' cependant que les tonalités originales pour l'époque de fa dièse mineur (op. 4 n°2) et d'ut dièse mineur (op. 4 n° 3) apparaissent déjà pré-romantiques et que la sonate en ut mineur op. 6 n° 1 est d'un caractère proche de celui de la Fantaisie KV 475 de Mozart dans la même tonalité; et l'influence de Dussek affleure çà et là. Cette musique est interprétée avec une grande d'autorité par Marek Toporowski sur une copie de pianoforte Anton Walter. Reste que cette vision sent beaucoup le clavecin et que l'on aimerait d'autant plus disposer d'une version sur instrument moderne que ce medium l'a toujours emporté sur la rigueur musicologique tant chez Haydn et Mozart que pour Beethoven. (Michel Lorentz-Alibert)

New recordings of signature works by a young and tragically short-lived lion of the keyboard in late 18th-century France. This is the most extensive set of records ever dedicated to the music of Hyacinthe Jadin, sure to attract the attention of all aficionados of keyboard rarities, especially as performed by the Polish harpsichordist and pianist Marek Toporowski, with his encyclopedic understanding of Baroque and early-Classical repertoire. Born in Versailles in 1776, Jadin grew up in a musical family and was educated in both the French and German traditions, something unusual at the time. His professional career was brief; he was appointed to the Conservatoire in 1795 as one of its first professors of piano, and fell ill from the tuberculosis that would take his life in 1800. Jadin’s surviving output includes six quartets, four piano concertos, and several violin sonatas. From the evidence of these nine piano sonatas – three for each published opus number – we may hear in Jadin an astonishingly gifted composer whose music foreshadows the Romantic era – even at points the expressive poignancy of Schubert. Writing in major keys, Jadin’s elegant facility belongs to his own Classical age; it is when he ventures into remote minor tonalities, such as the F sharp minor Sonata Op.4 No.2, that he seems to look forward to another, more personal age of expression. In all cases, however, Jadin evidently took Haydn as a model, for his themes are unfailingly compact and elegantly conceived for the keyboard, his development sections are likewise concise while enlivened with touches of ingenious modulation between keys. In his booklet essay, introducing Jadin’s life and work, Marek Toporowski makes the case for the composer as a French-born Dussek, an outstandingly original figure and one of the great ‘might-have-beens’ of musical history. His stylish performances on a modern copy of a Walter fortepiano support such a claim, as well as affording much delight in their own right.