CD: Romance

Bastien Baumet’s third solo recording, this is the first to feature the euphonium with piano. Key to the CD is the sheer elegance and musical refinement that the soloist brings to what is largely romantic repertoire in its atmosphere and age.

The one notable exception is, perhaps, Philip Wilby’s Concert Gallop, written for Dr. Robert Childs and which, in its joyous, upliftingly enjoyable virtuosity, forms a welcome interlude played with both verve and crystalline clarity of articulation. Elsewhere the three Romances by Robert Schumann, originally written for oboe, transcribe remarkably well for euphonium, despite the occasional extremes of upper register called for. Bastien Baumet captures the cantabile style of the music, as well as its free-flowing lyricism, with touching Gallic grace.

Gustav Schreck’s three-movement Sonata, first conceived for bassoon, is another exploration of Romantic musical art, often mellow in its atmosphere, even if it does lack melodic material that is truly memorable. Baumet’s playing is a joy, finding light and shade in each movement and displaying a natural affinity with the Romantic medium that informs the large majority of music on the disc.

Rolf Wilhelm’s engaging Concertino, although written as recently as 1997, is curiously sentimental, yet sits well with the genuinely romantic works on the disc and the soloist once again plays with an impressively even tone across all registers, displaying complete ease with the subtly shifting moods of the music.

Faure’s gorgeously evocative elegy sees the soloist on home ground, the music performed with touching simplicity and a beautiful use of delicate dynamic contrasts, whilst Legend by Marcel Kentsubitsch sees Baumet not only in technical control, but telling a potent musical story.

That leaves the more familiar Glorious Liberation by Ivor Bosanko and Jan Sandstrom’s Sang Till Lotta - the heart-felt simplicity of the latter concluding the disc in an appropriately reflective, if more contemporary musical vein. Pianist Mathilde Nguyen provides sensitive, beautifully nuanced accompaniment throughout in a thoughtfully devised and beautifully executed recording.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

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