Chopin’s Sonata Op. 35 disconcerted his contemporaries in several respects. Schumann saw it as a collection of four of Chopin’s “most unruly children,” while Mendelssohn disapproved of the frenzied presto. But when one considers the work at length, its musical ideas unfold with an implacable logic, all four movements cut out of the same expressive cloth. André Laplante, who has been acquainted with this work for decades, decided to come back to it for this recording with Analekta: “I think the main reason for including this work, as well as the others, in this recording is that I played it for many years, put it away and then came back to it.” He feels that his playing has become more focused, refined, “classical”, and that this new way of approaching the instrument can only serve the work.

Although Laplante is a soloist who is often invited to play with great orchestras and also a recitalist in demand, he hadn’t had the opportunity to make many recordings until now.  “I’ve understood what one can do in the studio. I think that the first time an instrumentalist enters a studio is always intimidating. He has the impression that there is no public to play for, that he’s playing for a microphone. But later, I understood that, in a certain manner, one can feel the freest there,” he explains. “If we play things that we know well, we can be as spontaneous as we wish and interpret the same work in totally differently ways – straight or loose.” In close association with his sound engineer Carl Talbot, a balance between the different approaches has been reached for our greatest listening enjoyment.

To listen to the recording…

The (very) small world of the Quebec classical musical scene lost a giant last night. Father Fernand Lindsay, founder of the Festival de Lanaudière (and still artistic director of the event) and of the Camp musical de Lanaudière passed away at the age of 80. The news shocked everyone since, a few days ago, he attended an evening of celebration in his honour and he seemed in good health.

His joie de vivre and his tenacity will be greatly missed.

Emotional and passionate—the very essence of the Romantic artist—Chopin had to love to be able to understand, to feel to be able to act. His latent vulnerability constantly pushed him to question and grasp the brevity of life on earth. And transcending this quest, he broadened the frontiers of the musical genres in which he worked.

Strongly grounded in the ever moving soil of existence, André Laplante’s journey has been etched with delicate artistic choices made through the years. Over the years he has grounded this atypical course in the joys of sharing his love of the repertoire with his public and, more recently, with the coming generation of pianists. Now in his fifties and at the height of his musical strength, he looks back philosophically at past choices that have enabled him to play both the Classical and Romantic repertoire with equal pleasure and ease, while still preserving his individual touch. His Chopin Recital on the Analekta label was much anticipated.

He granted us an exclusive interview a few days back. It will be featured on an upcoming post. In the meantime, you can read a portrait written fours years ago for La Scena Musicale.

Shannon Mercer performing Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn with the Skye Consort at the launch.

Lorraine Desmarais in La ballade de Riki, that will be performed with big band on her next album, her tenth on the Analekta label.