A Peek at Chausson

The other day, I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recently unveiled 19th- and early 20th-century European painting galleries and came across this impressive and large canvas by Henry Lerolle, "The Organ Recital." Lerolle was Chausson's brother-in-law; his wife was the sister of Chausson's wife. In the painting, from the mid-1880s, Chausson's wife is the singer; Chausson himself is seated at the organ. It's hard to see, but the young man standing in profile at the extreme left is Debussy. It's worth a visit to the Met (museum) to see the actual painting.

Who Is Francesco Tristano Schlimé?

He's the 27-year-old piano virtuoso from Europe whose most recent recital, in Luxembourg, of the first book of Debussy's Preludes was compared favorably to that of Radu Lupu (who is bringing his reading to Carnegie Hall next month) by the reviewer at ResMusica. Schlimé has made several recordings, including the complete piano works of Luciano Berio and Bach's Goldberg Variations; he is also a composer and a jazz pianist.

I admit to being curious, so I imagine I'll get a ticket to his New York debut, at the Weill Recital Hall, on February 1. He won't be playing the Debussy, alas, so we'll miss his "tempestuous, expressive" interpretation (as opposed to Lupu's "distant" and "cold" one). If the two excerpts I heard (the aria from Goldberg and a piece by Berio) on his web site are any indication, then this is the kind of heart-on-sleeve playing one hears too little.