All the beauty and elegance of simple melodies but rich in emotions and evocative power. This is the essence of the Lyrique program, an album by the duo of eminent guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan. The repertoire draws from relatively well-known cycles by composers ranging from Grieg to Ravel and Satie and Mompou. Grieg’s Lyric Pieces Op. 47 have long delighted music lovers and they are beautifully expressed here in their intimate tenderness through the subtle playing of the two performers. I very much like their version of three Ravel miniatures: Prélude en la mineur, Menuet sur le nom de Haydn and À la manière de Borodine. Satie’s four Gnossiennes seem a little stiff to me, but they are dressed in beautiful colors. The ethereal, minimalist character of John Cage’s “In a Landscape,” is very well rendered and seems particularly suited to a guitar duo, even enhanced by it, while Federico Mompou’s “Musica callada” (Music of Silence) cycle invites us to the kind of refined purity of Satie, but in a Catalan dress.
The discovery of this album is the “Fleurs de France” (Flowers of France) cycle by Germaine Tailleferre, the only female member of the famous Group of Six (which also included Poulenc, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Honegger). There are eight simple but refined evocations of as many flowers: “Jasmine of Provence,” “Poppy of Guyenne,” “Rose of Anjou,” “Sunflower of Languedoc,” “Anthemis of Roussillon,” “Lavender of Haute-Provence,” “Bindweed of Béarn,” and “Cornflower of Picardy.” A delight for the auditory sense shaped by the visual (and even olfactory) poetry suggested by all these inspiring flowers.
Let’s highlight the quality of the arrangements made by the two artists (all the pieces were originally for piano).
An album that resonates like a call to the simple beauty of the genius of melodies and graceful sonic textures.
