"Complete Chamber Music for Strings and Piano" Renaud Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Gautier Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Michel Dalberto, Quartet Ebène (Virgin Classics, five discs)
"Works for Cello and Piano" Eric Le Sage, François Salque and Paul Meyer (Alpha)
"Requiem" Philippe Jaroussky, Matthias Goerne, Chorus and Orchestre de Paris, Paavo Järvi conducting (Virgin Classics)
French music doesn't get any more ecstatic than the chamber works of Gabriel Fauré, which are collected in a handsome, five-disc, gift-worthy box on Virgin, played by some of the most charismatic young French musicians. There's no single performance viewpoint here. Though many like to draw Fauré out of his introspective shell these days, Renaud Capuçon makes no apologies for the music's inward nature. Keyboard duties are divvied between the ever-subtle Michel Dalberto and the more technically brilliant Nicholas Angelich. The one drawback is the cool, clinical recording quality.
The other two discs have extraordinary performances, well worth hearing, but with elements that take getting used to. On the Alpha disc, pianist Eric Le Sage gives Fauré a Mozartean precision but isn't afraid to build into big, sweeping climaxes. Cellist François Salque gives the cello writing the expressive detail of a great lieder singer. But in the "Trio Op. 120," the usual violinist is replaced by clarinetist Paul Meyer -- a fine player, although his lack of vibrato plays oddly off of the cello and creates some unpleasant blends.
The Requiem performance is wonderful as big-chorus versions go, and baritone Matthias Goerne is a huge plus. But countertenor Philippe Jaroussky replaces the usual soprano solo, and the microphone catches some distracting quirks.
