Louis Farrenc (1804-1875)
Trio pour piano n° 1 en mi bémol majeur, op. 33
Trio pour piano n° 2 en ré mineur, op. 34
Sonate pour violoncelle en si bémol majeur, op. 46

Sergey Galaktionov, violon
Amedeo Cicchese, violoncelle
Linda Di Carlo, piano

Louise Farrenc fait partie de ces compositrices talentueuses reconnues à leur époque puis injustement oubliée par une histoire de la musique patriarcale. Son rôle dans le domaine de la musique de chambre en France est particulièrement notable. Formée à l’école de Moscheles, Hummel et Reicha, inspirée par le Romantisme allemand, c’est à partir de la fin des années 1830 que son style a muri et s’est affirmé nous offrant ainsi des œuvres remarquables. Des quatre trios qu’elle composa, les deux premiers (1844 et 1845) sont de formation classique pour violon, violoncelle et piano contrairement aux suivants écrits au milieu des années 1850 remplaçant le violon par la clarinette pour l’un, la flûte pour l’autre. Le discours de ces œuvres témoigne d’une écriture alliant inventivité et maîtrise compositionnelle n’ayant rien à envier aux plus grands dans un style tant vivifiant que distingué. Chaque instrument s’y développe et interagit à part égale offrant ainsi une musicalité renouvelée et un lyrisme attrayant. De même, dans la Sonate pour violoncelle et piano (1857), le mélomane est immanquablement séduit par la qualité de l’écriture gracieuse et l’inspiration stimulante d’une composition d’un indéniable charme. Des œuvres et une compositrice à découvrir si ce n’est déjà fait ! (Laurent Mineau)

The case for Louise Farrenc no longer requires special pleading: she has emerged in the last decade as a major figure among French composers of the early-Romantic era, whose neglect in previous eras can only be understood in the context of her gender. Both live performances and recordings have revealed. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris in 1804, the family history of this gifted woman is a geneticist's dream. Her father, court sculptor and one-time pensionnaire of the French Academy at Rome represents the fourth generation of a dynasty of master craftsmen continuously associated with the rulers of France since Louis X. Louise's brother Auguste, three years her senior, became the fifth and last generation in a line of Dumont sculptors. Louise’s own special gifts in the realm of music became apparent very early, and she began training in piano and theory at the age of six. Still in her formative years, she had instruction from Moscheles and Hummel, both pupils of Beethoven, but she made a conscious decision at the age of 15 to seek out a more rigorous course of instruction from the Czech composer Reicha, who was (happily for posterity) a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Two years later, at 17, she married Aristide Farrenc, another scion of a well-to-do family, but after a period of travelling Louise resumed her studies with Reicha while awaiting the birth of her first child. Robert Schumann lavished praise on Farrenc’s early published work, and it is easy to hear why from these two piano trios and Cello Sonata, all of which belong to the mainstream of lyrical Romanticism in its early flowering. Farrenc’s own gifts as a pianist are always in evidence from the intricate nature of her writing for her instrument, but her understanding of the two string instruments, and the tricky balancing between them and the greater volume of the piano, is achieved with unobtrusive mastery in the trios. The slow movement of the Cello Sonata is a gentle, shy song which should delight every new listener to it. The pianist Linda di Carlo has already been the constant presence in two previous albums of Farrenc’s chamber music on Brilliant Classics, and she brings a deep understanding and experience of the idiom to these new recordings. Of the piano-and-wind music (95319), Fanfare’s reviewer concluded: ‘Performance and recording are top-notch. Buy and enjoy.’ For the violin sonatas (95922): ‘Daniele Orlando… plays with simply gorgeous tone throughout… Linda Di Carlo … handles her parts expertly, managing never to overwhelm Orlando, and that makes for an outstanding duo partnership. Urgently recommended.’