Frank Martin - Two Concertos and Ballade for Piano and Orchestra (Jean-François Antonioli, piano)

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Frank Martin - Two Concertos and Ballade for Piano and Orchestra (Jean-François Antonioli, piano)

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It is good to note the present resurgence of interest in Frank Martin on record, and to welcome this premiere recording of the Piano Concerto No. 1 of 1933-4. Martin was already in his early forties by the time he came to write his First Concerto and it bears many of the fingerprints one recognizes from such mature works as the Petite symphonie concertante and the Concerto for seven wind instruments. Gieseking, who gave the first performance with Ansermet and the Suisse Romance, appears not to have given a particularly convincing account of the solo part, but the work was acclaimed when it was given at the Barcelona Festival of the ISCM (In ternational Society of Contemporary Music) in 1936. Along with the Berg Violin Concerto, it was regarded as the most successful new work, but unhappily this was not enough to ensure its acceptance into the concert repertoire. For me it has been a rewarding discovery, and in some ways it seems a more characteric and poetic work than its successor, written in the late 1960s. The sustained pedal notes of the opening and the purposeful sense of movement which betrays an affinity with the thinking we find in the slow movements of the Honegger symphonies, and the pale, haunting instrumental colourings evoke Martin's own special world. Indeed it seems to me to possess the stronger atmosphere of the two, though the slow movements of both are marvellous, the product of a keen, refined sensibility and a subtle musical intelligence.
The Second Concerto straddles both sides of the record, thus involving a turnover, one reason for awaiting the appearance of the CD with keen anticipation. Jean-Francois Antonioli is an impressive player: he is entirely inside the idiom and despatches the solo part with expertise. The conductor, too, has obvious sympathy with this music and offers him sensitive support. However, the unglamorous acoustic in which the recordings are made does not help either of them, and the balance gives a somewhat artificial aural perspective with the piano very much upfront. The Turin orchestra is adequate rather than distinguished: there are some sensitive contributions from the wind and brass, but the strings are not of comparable quality. All the same, this record will be a must for all admirers of this remarkable composer and deserves recommendation. I would certainly want to buy it.'

Robert Layton @ Gramophone.co.uk