Grand Piano to Record Farrenc’s Piano Works

courtesy of Naxos of America

A little over two week’s ago, Grand Piano released the first album in a project to record the complete piano works of nineteenth-century composer Louise Farrenc. This is a two-CD release that accounts for four sets of études composed between 1833 and 1863. This accounts for 87 études, from which one may readily deduce that Farrenc had a keen passion for brevity. Once again Amazon.com is not the best source for this new album. Instead, one is advised to refer to Presto Music, which has created a Web page for both the compact disc and three download formats, the latter including a PDF file of the accompanying booklet. As of this writing, however, the CDs are out of stock; and Presto admits that orders may not be processed for six weeks or more.

The études are divided across four published sets:

1. Opus 26, 30 études composed between 1833 and 1838
2. Opus 41, twelve “études brillante” composed in 1853
3. Opus 42, twenty “moderately difficult” études composed in 1854
4. Opus 50, 25 “easy” études, probably composed between 1859 and 1863

My only previous contact with any of this music involved a performance of the tenth and only F-sharp minor étude in the Opus 26 collection. Ironically, this took place during mezzo Nikola Printz’ Schwabacher Recital Series concert this past March. Her accompanist, Erica Xiaoyan Guo, played the étude while Printz was changing outfits between the first and second acts of her program. The pianist on this new recording is Maria Stratigou, who made her recordings as part of her doctoral research at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

On the other hand, I had the good fortune to become aware of Farrenc through other genres. The late Michael Morgan presented her Opus 36 (third) symphony in G minor during what turned out to be his final visit to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony. In addition I had written about her Opus 33 piano trio in E-flat major when the Neave Trio included it on their Her Voice album. In other words my listening experience had only been devoted to long-scale compositions; and, somewhat ironically, Guo’s selection was the longest of the Opus 26 études.

Having so many almost minuscule compositions packed into a single CD is another matter. Presumably, Farrenc was not interested in anyone choosing to sit back and listen to a pianist work his/her way through 30 études in a single sitting. The fact is that what any of these pieces lack in duration is made up for in technical challenges. This is as true of the final set of “easy” études as it is of the contents of the earlier publications. Performing any of these publications as a “set” is asking more of any pianist than would be considered appropriate. Nevertheless, this collection definitely makes for an impressive “reference resource;” and listeners are advised to approach it with the same mindset one brings to an encyclopedia or dictionary.