JEUX DE CRÉATION • Anne-Sophie Bertrand (hp); L’Ens Ondine • NAXOS 8.551444 (75:17)
RAVEL Jeux d’eau (arr. Anne-Sophie Bertrand). FAURÉ Une châtelaine en sa tour, op. 110. HOFFMANN Quintet for Harp and String Quartet in c, AV 24. GORDON Jeux de création. DEBUSSY Danse sacrée et danse profane, L 113. CAPLET Divertissements. Conte fantastique

A superb new Naxos release, Jeux de création, spotlights Anne-Sophie Bertrand, the French-born solo harpist of the hr-Sinfonieorchester. In her recording liner notes, Bertrand explains: “Conceived as a tribute to the harp, an instrument both soloist and orchestral, this programme presents a new piece by Geoffrey Gordon evoking the 1920s, a golden age for the harp, enshrined within a collection of French and German works reflecting my country of origin and of adoption.” In addition to the Gordon composition, the disc includes several works within the French Impressionist tradition, as well as E. T. A. Hoffmann’s three-movement Quintet for Harp and String Quartet (c. 1806). L’Ensemble Ondine (Akemi Mercer-Niewohner and Laurent Weibel, violins; Dirk Niewohner, viola; Ulrich Horn, cello; Simon Backhaus, double bass) joins Bertrand for the Hoffmann Quintet, Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane, and the Caplet Conte fantastique. The opening work on the recital, Bertrand’s arrangement for solo harp of the Ravel piano work Jeux d’eau, sets the tone and standard for the entire disc. Bertrand’s mastery of the instrument is demonstrated in playing that manifests a breathtaking synthesis of elegance, beauty, and pristine technique. A mesmerizing poetry infuses Bertrand’s performance of the Ravel, and all the works that follow. The members of L’Ensemble Ondine are superb collaborators, equally at home in the early-Romantic world of E. T. A. Hoffmann, Debussy’s sparkling and delicate Impressionist palette, and Caplet’s riveting musical take on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. The performance by Bertrand and L’Ensemble Ondine of the Caplet is hair-raising in its precision and mastery of the narrative’s horrifying twists and turns.
Bertrand commissioned Jeux de création from American composer Geoffrey Gordon (b. 1968). The work’s title (also the title of the Naxos CD) refers to Gordon’s incorporation of thematic material from Debussy’s Jeux and Milhaud’s La création du monde. Gordon’s Jeux de création “takes inspiration from the aesthetic sound world of the 1920s, as seen through the lens of the composer’s own contemporary language.” The nine-minute piece incorporates “[e]xtended techniques, including xylophonics, harmonics, palm clusters and flutter glissandi.” Gordon conjures an inviting, dreamlike soundscape, one that complements in a most beguiling fashion the numerous Impressionist works on this recital. The recording, made at the Hessischer Rundfunk Sendesaal in Frankfurt, recreates an intimate concert hall perspective rich in color and detail. Anne-Sophie Bertrand’s Jeux de création is a captivating delight from start to finish, one that I recommend with the utmost enthusiasm. Ken Meltzer