CD Review
Various composers: Memories of Childhood, Souvenirs d'Enfance: Musique Russe
- Composer
- Various (Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Rubinstein, Scriabin, Shostakovich and others)
- Artist
- Brigitte Engerer, piano
- Label
- Mirare
- Catalogue
- MIR022
- Reviewed by
- B Moore
I am not what one might regard as musically literate but I have a wide taste in classical music and am always discovering something new and often exciting. So it is with some hesitation that I write to share with you my experience of a CD entitled Souvenirs d’Enfance – Musique Russe played by Brigitte Engerer which my wife gave me as a gift on her return from a trip to France earlier this year.
The disc contains some 38 pieces for piano by various composers including Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Liadov, Glinka, Alabiev, Shostakovich, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and Scriabin. “Memories of Childhood” is indeed a collection of pieces which evokes a desire for quiet reflection and contemplation on anything or nothing in particular – but always with the sweetness, delicacy and purity of Ms Engerer’s exquisite playing, helped a little perhaps by the acoustics of the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, where this recital was recorded, drifting through one’s head.
About the recording
The programme draws heavily on the 19th-century tradition of miniature “album” pieces written for or about childhood, of which Tchaikovsky’s own Album for the Young, Op. 39 is the best-known example and forms part of this recital. Many of the other composers represented, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Rubinstein and Scriabin among them, wrote similarly compact, intimate salon and character pieces alongside their larger-scale work, making a themed recital like this a way of hearing familiar names through a smaller, more private lens than their orchestral or concerto writing usually allows.
About the performer
Brigitte Engerer (1952–2012) was a French pianist born in Tunis, who entered the Paris Conservatoire at eleven to study under Lucette Descaves and won its top piano prize at fifteen. A scholarship to study with Stanislav Neuhaus at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, originally meant to last a single year, stretched to nine, training that put her at the centre of the Russian repertoire this disc draws so heavily on. Her career took a decisive turn in 1980 when Herbert von Karajan invited her to appear with the Berlin Philharmonic, and from 1992 she taught at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, passing on the same Franco-Russian pianistic lineage this Mirare recital represents.
A note on this page
Originally published by B Moore, recovered from mmmusic's own archive and reproduced here as the critic wrote it.
Questions about this recording
What's on this disc?
Some 38 short piano pieces by Russian composers including Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Liadov, Glinka, Alabiev, Shostakovich, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov and Scriabin, gathered under the title Souvenirs d'Enfance, Musique Russe.
Where was it recorded?
At the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, whose acoustics the review credits with helping the recital's quiet, reflective character.
Who is Brigitte Engerer?
A French pianist recording for the Mirare label, known for her interpretations of Romantic and Russian repertoire.
Is this recording still available to buy?
Yes, Mirare's catalogue number MIR022 remains findable through classical retailers. We don't run an in-house shop, so we link out to Amazon and Discogs below.
