Irina Muresanu - Dana Ciocarlie

The press speaks about it

"(...) to remain original and with Dana Ciocarlie, I can only recommend the magnificent recording (AR RE-SE 2006-0) that she has just made with her compatriot the violinist Irina Muresanu. Lekeu's Sonata for violin and piano associated with the lesser known but no less beautiful one by Albéric Magnard (1865-1914): what a change from the usual Franck-Lekeu pairing! A CD to be discovered urgently.

"The association of the Lekeu and Magnard sonatas is self-evident, since they are two great masterpieces of post-Franco chamber music, of a somewhat overexcited late romanticism. The two works did not enjoy the same success, Lekeu's having become well established in the repertoire, while Magnard's more difficult work remained confidential for a long time. However, neither of them attracted much attention from the violin tenors (so to speak). Menuhin and his sister recorded Lekeu in the 78 rpm era (Biddulph). Grumiaux left a moving version of it from his Philips debut. Later Ferras and Barbizet established themselves as a reference (DG), despite the qualities of Poulet and Lee (Arion). The few other recordings are less well known and not always uninteresting.
For Magnard, the tour of the question is more rapid. The sonata was revealed by the Zimansky-Keller duo (Accord) before Dumay and J.-P. Collard (EMI) then Pasquier and Sermet (Naive) completed a rare but rich discography. Irina Muresanu and Dana Ciocarlie are both of Romanian origin. If the pianist is well known in France, it is not the case of the violinist who has a fine international career and teaches in Boston. Irina Muresanu is an extraordinary performer, with a powerful, fleshy, extremely lyrical sound, but at the same time very controlled. Above all, in perfect collaboration with her partner, she knows how to manage long speeches - especially in Magnard. What could be prolix becomes epic, narrative, constantly intelligently thought out and put into a narrative (I am thinking of Magnard's second and fourth movements). The main concern of the 'Frankist' composers was construction. Well, these ladies know how to build a cathedral sonata solidly, but with extraordinary sonic refinements. Just listen to the development of Lekeu's Très lent (track 2, 5'15") and you will hear unheard-of lunar sonorities.
These recordings are therefore true marvels. Personally, I prefer Lekeu's style, which combines lightness and power (the Franco-Belgian school!). For Magnard, on the other hand, despite Dumay, we are here at the highest level.

"Boston-based Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu and her French-based compatriot Dana Ciocarlie are featured on Ar Ré-Sé's 'Lekeu/Magnard: Violin Sonatas'. These two sonatas, which go well together, have never been released together on a single CD, although one or the other is often used as a complement to Franck's famous A minor Sonata.
Lekeu and Magnard were both disciples of Vincent d'Indy, both sonatas were premiered by the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and both are among the most beautiful pages of the French post-Romantic language.
Irina Muresanu is superb here, displaying a rich, sweet and generous sound that has nothing to envy to Ysaÿe's style of interpretation, and making judicious use of proscribed portamenti that fit well with the period and language of this piece. Dana Ciocarlie shows great emotional investment in the piano part, which although sometimes a little loud never overwhelms Muresanu. The intensity of Ciocarlie's playing pays off in the Magnard, which is full of sudden changes of mood and violent contrasts. Neither of these sonatas is frequently played, and their combination here is very happy (...).
This disc will be of great interest to the (growing number of) listeners who are interested in French late Romantic music."

"A work of immediate appeal and bright silver colours, Guillaume Lekeu's Violin Sonata is on the fringes of the recording repertoire, where a few renowned performers have ventured (not counting the inevitable hordes of mediocrities), starting with the young Menuhin in 1938, followed by Lola Bobesco, Arthur Grumiaux, and then the explosive duo formed by Augustin Dumay and Jean-Philippe Collard. As for Albéric Magnard's Sonata, this recording is, unless I am mistaken, only the fifth ever made and the only one available today. Discovered late in life, this work remains little known. This oversight is due as much to the composer's death at the beginning of the Great War as to the particularly melancholy character of his music. After the end of the massacres, the jazz era was in full swing, closely followed by the rival schools of Stravinsky's neo-classicism and Schoenberg's atonality, which ruled the avant-garde camp. In such a context, Franck's legacy, passed on to Magnard by his teacher d'Indy, and the cult of Beethoven that bursts forth in his most ambitious works were frankly old-fashioned. It would take seventy years, or two whole generations, for Magnard's music to acquire the aura of an old forgotten treasure. This is because the Violin Sonata is not an easily accessible work. The recapitulation of the first movement, for example, is at once sculpted and tremulous, and displays a lyricism that is as aristocratically detached as it is deliciously generous. The whole thing is abrupt and disconcerting, like the character himself. For the connoisseur, this makes for a work of substance and fascination, which, according to Wallace Stevens' criterion for poetry, offers almost complete resistance to the intellect. Irina Muresanu and Dana Ciocarlie are at home in this repertoire, the violinist raising her voice with assurance while the pianist brushes Magnard's symphonic piano writing with a velvet glove and consummate dexterity... Lekeu's Sonata is performed with ebullient verve for the movements surrounding the Berceuse, the latter rendered captivatingly, with poetry mixed with faint momentum. In short, a performance that has nothing to envy its predecessors...
Nicolas Southon's libretto is based on Simon-Pierre Perret's biography of Albéric Magnard, published by Fayard in 2001, and recounts the first meeting of the two composers at the Bayreuth Festival in 1899: Between the exuberant Lekeu, Franck's last disciple, who lived on the edge, and the hardened Parisian boulevardier that Magnard was, it was not exactly love at first sight... The recording is precise, balanced and effective from the very first bars. A valuable recording which does not lack vivacity, and which I recommend with enthusiasm.