Angela Hewitt - Chabrier: Piano Music

Fresh from her distinguished three-disc survey of Couperin, Angela Hewitt turns her attention to the piano music of Emmanuel Chabrier. An important influence for subsequent generations of French composers�most notably Ravel, who acknowledged his debt to the older composer�Chabrier�s music was appreciated more by his fellow artists than by the public. His best works�notwithstanding the popularity of his evergreen orchestral rhapsody Espa�a�deserve to be better known.Chabrier was a sensitive soul, prone to weep on hearing a single chord of Wagner, yet he cultivated a gaiety and sense of joy that is clearly heard in his music. As one biographer wrote: �With Chabrier, burlesque went hand in hand with the sentimental; the picturesque was allied to the emotional.� Chabrier�s passion for painting was unmatched by any other composer, and he was friends with important artists of the day, including Manet, Monet, Sisley, C�zanne and Renoir. He had many of their paintings on his walls, and Manet�s celebrated A Bar at the Folies-Berg�re�reproduced on the front cover of this recording�hung above his piano.Chabrier�s most important works are for the piano. The ten contrasting and evocative Pi�ces pittoresques form the centrepiece of this recording, and were described by Poulenc as being �as important for French music as the preludes of Debussy�. The remaining works are charming and varied character pieces. All are played with style and affection by Angela Hewitt, who with her renowned warmth and communicative flair makes a very special case for this music.