Various composers: French Bassoon Works, Karen Geoghegan, bassoon

Karen Geoghegan has done what every successful business owner aspires to: found a gap in the market, produced a desirable product and marketed it successfully. Her first disc of Bassoon Concerti (CHAN10477) proved highly popular and she has since recorded two more CDs for Chandos (remarkable, seeing that Geoghegan is still an undergraduate). The most recent is an interesting collection of French bassoon works (with piano) that date from 1887 to 1972 and combine transcriptions of more familiar works with competition pieces that fully demonstrate the versatility and agility of both player and instrument.

The programme begins with the delightfully lilting Sicilienne et Allegro giocoso by Grovlez (written as a Paris Conservatoire test-piece, a theme that links many of the works on this disc). A transcription of Fauré’s Pièce demonstrates both the warm and lyrical nature of the instrument and Geoghegan’s keen sense of phrasing throughout. Boutry’s Interférences follows this and has a quirky nature that brings out the mischievous character of the instrument. Dutilleux’s Sarabande et Cortège provides an immediate contrast again and is performed with remarkable depth and control. Bitsch’s Concertino is a highly rhapsodic one-movement work so obviously written by a bassoonist with the intention of showcasing the entire range and potential of the instrument, something that Geoghegan dispatches with effortless grace.

About the programme

The bassoon is a genuinely under-recorded solo instrument, and this programme’s focus on French Conservatoire test-pieces reflects a real historical pattern, the Paris Conservatoire commissioned a steady stream of concours pieces across the late 19th and 20th centuries specifically to test advancing students, which is why so much of the instrument’s best solo repertoire, including several works here, originated as competition material rather than concert commissions. Henri Dutilleux’s Sarabande et Cortège, one of the more substantial pieces on the disc, was itself written for exactly that purpose in 1942, decades before Dutilleux became one of the most significant French composers of the later 20th century.

No disc of French repertoire would be complete without the appearance of something by Debussy, and here it takes the form of five favourites (ending with Golliwog’s Cake-Walk) arranged for the bassoon, which provide a light-hearted conclusion to the recital. Geoghegan has proved once again that she is not only an outstanding musician, but an important ambassador for an often mis-judged instrument.