Shostakovich: 24 Preludes & Fugues, opus 87

David Jalbert, piano
ATMA classique ACD2 2555
2 CD : 147 min 25 s
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Tatiana Nicolaeva chez Hyperion et Vladimir Ashkenazy chez Decca ont placé la barre haut pour l’interprétation de ce recueil que Chostakovitch a mis sous l’égide de Bach dont il s’inspire même par moments, puisque certains de ses thèmes font des clins d’œil à ceux du Clavier bien tempéré. Aucun des deux pianistes russes n’a pourtant réussi les quarante-huit pièces avec un bonheur égal, étant donné leur extrême variété de tons et d’atmosphère, pour ne rien dire de leurs grandes exigences techniques, quoique la personnalité des deux pianistes s’y affirme partout. David Jalbert, dans une nouvelle intégrale, privilégie l’aspect lyrique de ces compositions plutôt que leur structure, à la manière de Nicolaeva, ou leur densité rythmique, comme Ashkenazy. Il en résulte une interprétation d’une belle fluidité qui rend agréable le premier contact avec l’opus 87, mais dont l’inconvénient, à l’écoute suivie, est une certaine uniformité d’approche. Parfois aussi, le tempo choisi est trop lent pour maintenir le fil du discours, d’autant plus que l’inspiration de certaines pièces, préludes ou fugues, semble étirée.

-Alexandre Lazaridès

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Jupiter String Quartet: Shostakovich and Britten

Shostakovich Quartet No. 3
Britten String Quartet No. 2
Marquis Classics MAR 371 (65 m 55 s)
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The Jupiter String Quartet is, on paper, a blue-chip young group with all the right credentials to succeed in this remarkably competitive business of chamber music. This release, its début CD, comes on the heels of a host of prizes and honours: first prize at the 2004 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition of the same year, winners of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Audition, and selection for a residency at Lincoln Center, among others. It's perhaps appropriate, then, that such a youthful ensemble starts off its professional recording career with the innocent and playful strains of the first movement from Shostakovich's Third String Quartet; the uncharacteristic simplicity and jollity of it cannot possibly prepare you for the darker and more ominous moods that come later in the piece. Programmatically, the Shostakovich is well paired on the disc with Britten's Second String Quartet: both pieces were written shortly after WWII and represent the work of two composers who didn't wish to celebrate the Allied victory in music but, rather, chose to come to terms with the devastation of the war through their art. The Jupiters attack both works with terrific panache and maturity. A feeling of elasticity pervades their performance on this recording, as the ensemble is remarkably sensitive to the extremes in mood achieved by these giants of 20^th-century composition. In particular, the sustained, quiet intensity of the massive 20-minute finale of the Britten quartet, Chacony, connects one variation to another, keeping the listener in rapt suspense until the rousing, explosive conclusion. Their Shostakovich won't replace my Emerson Quartet recording (what can?) in terms of performance or recording quality, but it is still a convincing and successful interpretation, especially for a first release; clearly, the term "rookie" hardly applies to this ensemble.

-Graham Lord

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