Penard / Ciocarlie / Quatuor Debussy - Olivier Penard: Chroniques [CD]

Chroniques, written in 212 and the most recent score in this recording, is a collection of seven pieces for piano that evoke various states of passionate love, somewhat in the manner of Schumann's Kreisleriana. The entirety rests on a harmonic scale consisting of triads associated with four chords, which together cover the chromatic universe. Stupeur is a piece without indication of meter that begins with a succession of ascending motives in a very impressionistic atmosphere. It closes in an enigmatic manner with an alternation of silences and sighs. Un regard sees itself as amomen to freedom, both in regard to tonality - the movement is clearly polytonal - and rhythm, left predominantly to the performer's free choice. Paralysie is a state well-known from passionate love. It's impression is rendered through a systematic interruption of motive sthat cannot develop. Un sourire is a lighter piece, with a pronounced modality. It's expression is soft and graceful, free of constraint. Once again it is a piece without an indication of metre, expressed with much freshness and tenderness. Romance, the finale, respects the traditional manner of writing in this genre: tonal affirmation, overflowing lyricism and passionate exaltation, expressed in a true set of pianistic fireworks that the great Romantics would not disavow.