Violin Sonatas: Franck • Debussy • Ravel
Shlomo Mintz & Yefim Bronfman
1986: Polydor/Deutsche Grammophon 415 683-2
Cesar Franck (1822–1890)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
I heard this recording of Ravel’s sonata in a dance concert by the choreographer Long Nguyen in the late 1980s, and I was mesmerized by both the music and Nguyen’s danced story and characterizations, even though I was watching it from the wings (I was working the curtain and doing other prop-related stuff). Several months later as I was in Paris for the first time, I quite unexpectedly found a copy of this LP at a record shop at St Germain des Prés (now long gone); I have treasured it ever since. And when I was at a low ebb, back in Paris in 1998, to my complete astonishment I found a copy of this CD at la FNAC (the one at place des Ternes), even though the CD had been out of print for countless years; this is that copy, and when a track skipped momentarily the other day I panicked…time to scour the Web for a backup copy!
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.