Resonance

Louise Farrenc, the only woman to hold a permanent teaching post at the Paris Conservatoire during the 1800s, created works of consummate quality and approachable beauty. The Piatti Quartet and pianist Emmanuel Despax show why Farrenc’s chamber music was so greatly admired, not least by Robert Schumann, with their joyful world premiere recording of the piano quintet version of her Sextet in C Minor, Op. 40. For a sense of her inventive brilliance, listen to the enchanting dialogue between keyboard and strings in the “Andante sostenuto”, and how it darkens in mood before effortlessly returning to radiant lyricism. The heart-on-sleeve romanticism of Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat offers an ideal “resonance” for the classical poise of Farrenc’s Piano Quintet. It stands here in company with three exquisite miniatures by the violinist composer Lucien Durosoir, whose Prière à Marie, composed in 1949, reflects the profound melancholy of a nation so deeply scarred by two world wars.