French pianist Gabriel Tacchino was a student of Poulenc and has made that modest master's piano music his own. Piano Melodies is a compilation of recordings made between 1966 and 1985, plus a couple of new recordings made by Tacchino in old age: the opening "Les chemins de l'amour," from the incidental music to Jean Anouilh's Léocadia, and the "Rustique" movement from the Sonata for piano four hands. Poulenc wasn't known as a piano composer, and these pieces aren't terribly often played. They consist of little character ...
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French pianist Gabriel Tacchino was a student of Poulenc and has made that modest master's piano music his own. Piano Melodies is a compilation of recordings made between 1966 and 1985, plus a couple of new recordings made by Tacchino in old age: the opening "Les chemins de l'amour," from the incidental music to Jean Anouilh's Léocadia, and the "Rustique" movement from the Sonata for piano four hands. Poulenc wasn't known as a piano composer, and these pieces aren't terribly often played. They consist of little character pieces, Bachian essays, folk dances, and pieces called Improvisations, which are modern French counterparts to Schubert's Impromptus. The designation "Piano Melodies" shouldn't be taken to mean that they are mélodies, French songs; rather they are slices of Poulenc's abstract thinking, and as such they are of considerable interest. Tacchino's readings are precise and rather hard-edged; it's certainly possible to imagine lighter versions of, say, the Villageoises, but Tacchino brings...
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