Emmanuel Despax piano
Release Date: 16/06/2023
Catalogue Number: SIGCD747
Barcode: 635212074725
“This will clearly be a recording to savour” – Seen and Heard International
“Despax and his Fazioli produce a luxurious, quasi organ tone that ravishes the ear … Claire de Lune is another example of Despax the keyboard poet and colourist.” – Gramophone
“Despax seems indeed very much at home with the music” – The Classic Review
“This well-chosen and characterfully played collection of French music for solo piano by seven composers, from UK-based French pianist Emmanuel Despax is a delight … Despax is fluent and totally convincing throughout. Recommended.” – The Arts Desk
“This is a treasurable disc born of a musician of the highest possible musicality” – Classical Explorer
“It is the first time [Despax] has devoted an entire album to material by French composers, and the results, selections of elegance and finesse executed with consummate poise, are superb … Emotion and intellect are held in magnificent balance throughout the eighty-two-minute set … Après un rêve is an accomplishment of which Despax can be unreservedly proud.” – Textura
“A quality recording of known and less well-known French repertoire – and one which shows that Despax has Belle Epoque repertoire in his bones”. – Art Muse London
“Absolutely gorgeous…a really lovely album” – Scala Radio Album of the Weekend
“A dream-filled evocation of La belle époque … With his patience, his sensuous tonal palate and his ability to light on precisely the right bittersweet balance of ardour and regret, Despax carefully establishes our expectations of what’s to come…Despax can transform his sound and his outlook with remarkable dexterity; and whatever the spirit of the music – the calm radiance of Duparc’s transcription of Aux étoiles’, the malice-laced sizzle of Horowitz’s sly embellishments of the Saint-Saëns-Liszt Danse macabre, the plush innocence of Chaminade’s Nocturne – he conveys it with confidence and, when necessary, bravura” – International Piano
“The mood is sensuous, the choice irresistible…the works here particularly suit his sensibility…[Gaspard de la Nuit] he masters the ferocious challenges with ease, delicacy and strength” – The Observer
“Après un rêve is sound poetry. A recording of great interest and musical breadth that brings together many personalities … Despax gives life to the unspoken word and character to French music.” – Sonograma
Gabriel Fauré
[1] Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 Arr. by Emmanuel Despax
Francis Poulenc
Les Soirées de Nazelles, FP 84
[2] Préambule
[3] I. Le comble de la distinction
[4] II. Le cœur sur la main
[5] III. La désinvolture et la discrétion
[6] IV. La suite dans les idées
[7] V. Le charme enjôleur
[8] VI. Le contentement de soi
[9] VII. Le goût du malheur
[10] VIII. L’alerte vieillesse
[11] Cadence
[12] Final
Claude Debussy
[13] Suite bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune
Camille Saint-Saëns
[14] Danse macabre, Op. 40 Arr. by Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz
Cécile Chaminade
[15] Nocturne, Op. 165
Maurice Ravel
Gaspard de la nuit
[16] I. Ondine
[17] II. Le Gibet
[18] III. Scarbo
Henri Duparc
[19] Aux étoiles
