The Whole Note

[We have] Schumann cello on Une Rencontre, a CD of works by Robert Schumann and the French composer Tristan Murail (born 1947), who explains his encounters with both Schumann and cellist Marie Ythier in the extensive booklet notes. There’s a lighter and cleaner balance between Ythier and pianist Marie Vermeulin in the Fünf Stücke in Volkston Op. 102 and the Fantasiestücke Op. 73 than on the Steinway disc also reviewed here, with perhaps a touch more tonal nuance.

Attracteurs étranges (1992) and C’est un jardin secret, ma soeur, ma fiancée, une fontaine close, une source scellée from 1976 are both solo cello works by Murail: flutist Samuel Bricault joins Ythier in Murail’s Une lettre de Vincent (2018).

The final encounter is Murail’s recent instrumental re-interpretation of Schumann’s piano work Scènes d’enfants (Kinderszenen) Op. 15, subtitled Une relecture pour violoncelle, flûte et piano, Murail using a range of instrumental techniques to make the orchestration sound larger than a trio.

—Terry Robbins