Crossing the Line

Album review

Four French composers, two from our time—Ida Gotkovsky and Gracian Finzi—, two from the early twentieth century—Mel Bonis (apocope of Mélanie) and Lili Boulanger—share the cover of this album from Trio Empreinte, a rather rare ensemble because it brings together a saxophonist, a violinist and a pianist for an admittedly rather limited repertoire, though very interesting nonetheless. You won’t find  any traces of the Boulezian vanguard’s ravages in Gotkovsky’s or Finzi’s style (that some would consider as improvements…), and if both play off atonality and micro-tonality, it stays in line with a language inherited from the immediate post-war period, from Messiaen, Dutilleux, etc. Mel Bonis holds a rather special place, because in the course of her pretty long existence, she rubbed shoulders with Debussy, Franck, Satie, Chausson and Pierné. And despite some apparent sonic kinship, she hadn’t met Poulenc at the time she composed her Suite en Trio because the work dates from 1899, which is the year that Poulenc was born! She’s a composer well ahead of her time then, though she suffered from the fact that she was “just a woman” at a time when this still irked fogeys and old grouches. Finally, Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel can only make you regret even more that this musician died so young. This is a rare repertoire that you’ll enjoy discovering, especially when it’s played this way. © SM/Qobuz