Les musiques de Madame Bovary

The concept here is pieces—most by female composers—that Madame Bovary may have heard in her (fictional) life or that reflect her character and the novel’s plot. In fact, only the three Chopin nocturnes are not by or about women. Four selections from The Year by Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn demonstrate that she was quite an inspired composer; “May” is particularly fetching. Pauline Viardot was a French singer and pianist of Spanish heritage, and her gorgeous “Serenade” balances Spanish colors against (pardon my stereotyping) Gallic restraint. The final flourish sounds impressively harp-like. Clara Schumann’s variations on one of her husband’s themes sounds less like a composer trotting out trick after trick, and more like an impressive collection of character pieces. It’s practically inevitable that a recital of high romanticism should have a frou-frou virtuosic number: here, it’s Liszt’s overheated Reminiscences of Lucia di Lammermoor. Erno Dohnanyi’s florid transcription of the waltz from Delibes’ Coppelia would normally provoke more eye-rolls from me, but Kadouch plays so gloriously and mellifluously that I want to learn the piece, too! His musicianship makes this recital. The sonics are decent but the piano is a little too distant, and the low end could be richer.