Legendary French Violinists ∙ Janine Andrade ∙ Jeanne Gautier

September 2019 ∙ MusicWeb International ∙ Janine Andrade / Jeanne Gautier ∙ Legendary French Violinists
It’s Andrade who plays the Beethoven Concerto with Franz Konwitschny and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in November 1959. The choice of work complements the Beethoven sonata broadcasts in the previous volume devoted to her. She proves a resilient, untempremental exponent of the concerto with only very brief intonational lapses, and these early on, before she has fully played herself in. She tightens her tone expressively and keeps passagework alive and doesn’t drag the second subject. A few noises-off during the cadenza attest to the taut realities of a live broadcast. Her playing in the slow movement is sensitive though not seraphically phrased, and she inflects with care. Gautier was a generation older than Andrade and espoused the resinous intensity of one arm of the French violin school. In both her performances she’s accompanied by Hans Rosbaud. The Bach Concerto comes from Baden-Baden in 1951 and finds the conductor in big-boned form with Wagnerian basses to buttress the line. The sound itself is fine. One can hear her abrasive bowing from time to time as well as one very marked rallentando – it reminds me of the preparation for a 78 turnover – that luxuriates in Romanticism. She makes noticeable slides in the slow movement and her medium speed vibrato, and consequentially medium speed trills, promote some real pathos here. Her finale is lively, and she makes plenty of sinewy contrast in articulation and effect. It’s a most stimulating performance that would hardly be countenanced these days, and so much the worse for these days. In Frankfurt in 1937 she espoused Chausson’s Poème, as she had Ravel’s Tzigane, which can be found in the previous Meloclassic disc. It highlights her affinity with her national repertoire and because so very different from Ginette Neveu’s familiar, full-bloodied reading, offers a contrasting tonal and interpretative conception. It’s largely because of this lack of bravura opulence that one finds moments of almost emotive fragility in her reading. Once again, the sound quality is excellent. In fact, I felt the full force of Rosbaud’s basses even more here than in the post-war Bach. Meloclassic’s English-only booklet notes admirably portray the two women’s biographies accompanied by some excellently reproduced photographs. As noted, the sound quality is first class. Because neither woman recorded these works commercially, their admirers will want to add this disc to their shelves.
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February 2020 ∙ MusicWeb International ∙ Janine Andrade / Jeanne Gautier ∙ Legendary French Violinists
For me, the star of the show here is Janine Andrade (1918-1997). The dearth of commercial recordings by the artist is due to the fact that she never held a contract with a major label. To redress the balance, Meloclassic have thankfully already issued two volumes of violin sonatas by various composers which I had the good fortune to review. Andrade’s Beethoven Concerto is distinguished by nobility and patrician elegance, with emphasis on the work’s reflective qualities. She plays the Joachim cadenza in the first movement with virtuosic aplomb. The slow movement offers a wealth of interpretative insights. I love the way she caresses the long lyrical lines, with Franz Konwitschny matching phrase for phrase. The finale has plenty of rhythmic vigour and bite. Intonation is, for the most part, secure, and Andrade’s tone has burnished bloom and radiance. Jeanne Gautier (1898–1974) was a pupil of Henri Berthelier at the Paris Conservatoire. The Strad magazine described her playing as embodying “a quintessentially Gallic blend of astringency and sensuousness”. The Bach Violin Concerto in E major offers an example of the inconsistencies in Gautier’s playing. The slow movement sounds very much a product of the old-school, pre-Heifetz way. Ungainly slides, especially downward portamenti, sound very anachronistic to our modern ears. Intonation is wayward at times, which doesn’t help matters. It’s not a performance that endears itself. The Chausson, on the other hand, truly delights. The intonation problems that afflicted the Bach are no longer an issue. The opulent sweep of the reading, radiant, resonant and powerful makes for a satisfying account. Hans Rosbaud is a sympathetic conductor and is with the violinist every step of the way. Lynn Ludwig has done a sterling job with the audio restorations, with the sound pleasing throughout, even the Chausson from way back in 1937. All told, though, the more I hear Janine Andrade’s playing, the more impressed I am.
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May 2020 ∙ French Diapason ∙ Jean-Michel Molkhou ∙ Janine Andrade / Jeanne Gautier ∙ Legendary French Violinists
Deux violonistes françaises tombées dans l’oubli, Jeanne Gautier (1898-1974) et Janine Andrade (1918-1997) se partagent un volume réunissant des æuvres dont elles n’ont laissé aucune trace au disque. La première défend le Poème de Chausson avec un lyrisme poignant en concert à Francfort en 1937. Rosbaud l’accompagne à nouveau en 1951, cette fois à Baden-Baden, dans un BWV 1042 assez désordonné avec une intonation plus inégale. C’est un concerto de Beethoven, capté en public à Stuttgart en 1959, qui permet de redécouvrir Janine Andrade. Disciple de Boucherit, elle atteste une belle autorité sous la direction éclairée de Konwitschny. Esthétique très pure, tempos naturels, cette rivale de Ginette Neveu nous tient en haleine tant par la poésie du chant que sa maîtrise instrumentale.
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