Piano 4 Mains contains a couple of French suites that will be fresh to fans of piano duets, paired with the old standbys of Fauré's Dolly and
Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye. First up is the Rhapsodie Gaélique by
Paul Ladmirault, six movements that play off of Scottish, Irish, and Breton folk music. The music is very tuneful, as expected, but also playful, carefree, and not at all romantically or intensely passionate, like typical rhapsodies. Despite being written for four hands, none of the movements are at all heavy or thick, nor is
Ladmirault's writing simplistic. The textures are very much like those of the Fauré and
Ravel. The suite Âmes d'enfant (Children's Souls) by naval Commander Jean Cras is also delicately drawn, even while being slightly denser in sound. The suite exists in this duet version and an orchestral version, but it originated as pieces for Cras' three daughters to play together. In other words, they were for six hands at one keyboard, so a greater amount of the keyboard is used, and the extremes of register used at the same time can make the character sketches more fantastic or magical sounding than any of the other music here. These two suites make perfect companions for the Fauré and
Ravel. Pianists
Laurent Boukobza and
Jean-Pierre Ferey play the Fauré and
Ravel without adding unnecessary profoundness in the way the music is shaped or colored, thereby maintaining a consistent childlike quality and simplicity that help bind the unfamiliar with the familiar in their program. It doesn't necessarily make the Fauré and
Ravel stand out as performances better than most others, but it does make the
Ladmirault and Cras works worth seeking out as undiscovered duet repertoire with promising potential. The recording's sound is excellent, although engineered too quietly.