Music For Violin & Piano - the Franco-Belgian Album

Bruno Monteiro (violin) & Joao Paulo Santos (piano)

Deze cd, getiteld The Franco-Belgian Album, is zoals de naam al aangeeft gewijd aan muziek voor viool en piano van Franse en Belgische componisten uit de gouden eeuw van de romantiek.

België wordt vertegenwoordigd door Henri Vieuxtemps en Cesar Franck, terwijl Frankrijk wordt vertegenwoordigd door Gabriel Faure en Camille Saint-Saens. Met uitzondering van Faure's Berceuse op. 16 en de virtuoze Caprice d'apres l'Etude en forme de Valse op. 52 van Saint-Saens, die vaak op het repertoire van veel concertviolisten staan, zijn de Belgische werken van respectievelijk Vieuxtemps en Franck vrijwel onbekend bij het publiek, wat vreemd is, want het zijn stukken van grote muzikale en artistieke waarde die het terecht verdienen om meer gespeeld en opgenomen te worden.

Fauré:
 Berceuse, Op. 16

Franck, C:
 Andantino quietoso in E flat, Op. 6
 Mélancolie for piano and violin in E minor

Saint-Saëns:
 Caprice d'après l'Etude en forme de valse
 Elégie, Op. 143

Vieuxtemps:
 Grande Sonate, Op. 12

REVIEWS:

“The performances are intensely personal ones where the human touch is always felt (there's nothing robotic about his runs, for example), and the intimacy of their playing creates the impression of the two playing in one's living room as opposed to in a concert hall. Recorded over two days in July 2024, The Franco-Belgian Album makes for a worthy addition to the discography the Portuguese violinist and his long-standing recital partner have been building for many years now.” Textura

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“While in the Vieuxtemps Sonata the two musicians strive for a bright and light sound, in the Franck pieces they find a warmer and more velvety sound that suits these works. In Saint-Saëns and Fauré, too, they are not particularly concerned with brilliance, and their playing is of great warmth and sensuality. The program concludes with a caprice composed by Ysaÿe after an etude by Saint-Saëns, which demands incredible virtuosity from the violinist.

The 45-minute-long Vieuxtemps Sonata takes up the lion’s share of the varied and colorful program.”*****  Pizzicato Magazine

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 “The album title refers to French and Belgian composers who wrote music for violin and piano: Henri Vieuxtemps and César Franck (Belgium), Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns (France). Although Franck was born in Liège, he spent most of his life in Paris (where he also died). He was granted French citizenship in 1837 at the age of fifteen.

Although nationality may be a more or less important characteristic from various perspectives, the music on this album is still rooted in what the CD booklet rightly refers to as the (in my opinion boundless) Golden Age of Romanticism.

Well-known pieces on this album are only the Berceuse Op. 16 by Fauré and the Caprice Op. 52, a virtuoso orchestral work by Saint-Saëns, but here in the arrangement for violin and piano by the Belgian composer Eugène Ysaÿe. The other compositions are not or hardly found in the repertoire of most violinists, unless they are encores (in the concert programs, apart from the regular programme, good information about them can rarely or never be found). Unknown makes unloved and that is more than a pity, because in this case it is completely unjustified. Anyone who hears these works for the first time will therefore be in for a certain amount of amazement or at least a considerable surprise, because craftsmanship and inventiveness go hand in hand, while the large form is also really beyond reproach, although the Largo from Vieuxtemps' Grande Sonate is somewhat disappointing in this respect.

The fact that it took two Portuguese musicians to break a musical lance for this relatively unknown music is in itself special, but the fact that their interpretations radiate great authority did not surprise me at all, because I know this duo from previous, very successful recordings. Violinist Bruno Monteiro and pianist João Paulo Santos have been working together for years and that pays off musically: knowledge and experience even gain an intuitive dimension as time goes by. I imagine their rehearsals, in which often a few words, a certain facial expression or a short gesture are enough. Which of course does not detract from what always precedes it: thorough preparation.

Good teamwork is essential in this genre and on this point alone the two instrumentalists make an excellent impression. Another strong point is that they truly believe in every bar that this music has to offer. At least that is how it sounds. Their interpretations exude a lot of energy, lyricism and character. Monteiro's rather light violin tone is perfectly suited to the more exuberant and virtuoso sides of these pieces, while the somewhat darker tone is at the service of introspection (as in Franck's darkly toned Mélancolie and the Andantino quietoso, wrapped in intermediate tones, Saint-Saëns' rustic Élégie and the drawn-out Largo from Vieuxtemps' Grande Sonate). Santos' richly nuanced piano playing offers an equally irresistible attraction as Monteiro's violin playing. The beautiful recording is the icing on this Franco-Belgian 'cake.'” Opus Klassiek