In César Franck’s piano works, the French pianist Ingmar Lazare sometimes lacks the requisite tonal charm.
The individual notes of the chorale join together like drops. Sweet arpeggios with a glowing upper low in the treble. Ingmar Lazar plays this middle section of César Franck’s “Introduction, Chorales and Fugues” with the requisite delicacy, but fortunately not formally or slowly. Chooses a reliable compromise. It also carefully emphasizes individual bass notes. It is one of four piano works by Frank that can be heard here. This also includes “Prelude, aria et Final”, a rarely recorded first sonata and “Grand Caprice”, a virtuoso work of about a quarter of an hour. Lazare avoids the superficial, and chooses his tempo carefully, but the tonal magic of this music is not always apparent. The fugue in Act I seems a little woodsy, while the finale in Act II sometimes lacks the organic flow of the music ultimately inspired by the organ.
Frank: Piano Sonata No. 1, Grand Caprice, Op. 5, Prelude, Aria, Finale, and Overture, Chorale and Fugue
Ingmar Lazar (piano)
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