Salon de Paris will surely appeal to all those with nostalgic memories of times gone by. No less than close to 70 minutes of sweet melodies, many arranged for violin and piano by such eminent musicians as Nathan Milstein, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Pablo Casals, and, of course, Jörg Demus and Thomas Irnberger, joined by the soprano Christine Ornetsmüller in 4 ‘chansons’. All in all an interesting idea and ditto programme.

However, the danger resides not so much in the quality of the playing, but rather lies in the quantity on offer. Like a box of chocolates: One has to be careful not to eat too much in one go.

When I say quality, this refers in the first place to Irnberger and his velvety violin, following, indeed, in the footsteps of, say, Milstein and Kreisler. And then, naturally, the sympathetic Nestor of the piano, Jörg Demus. I’m less convinced about the contribution of Ms. Ornetsmüller. With the high notes one recognizes that she is, in fact, a coloratura. But there is a noticable imbalance, which may be due to the fact that the voice of this relatively young soprano is not yet fully developed. But what really is disappointing, is that her texts in French are unintelligible. Even with the in the liner notes provided texts in front of you she is still difficult to follow. This is a real drawback. Gabriel Fauré’s ‘Clair de Lune’ thus becomes a rather misty affair.

As to the sound: Gramola has done much better than this time. The piano is distant and, together with the violin, somewhere up in the air. The surround is too loud, creating an unrealistic sound picture.

While I very much like the idea, I must conclude that this disk, in its present form, poses a number of issues preventing me from making any positive recommendation, other than for Irnberger’s playing and out of respect for Jörg Demus.

Blangy le Château
Normandy, France

Copyright © 2015 Adrian Quanjer and HRAudio.net

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