Bertrand Chamayou – Good Night!

Pianist Bertrand Chamayou’s Good Night! takes its title from one of the numbers of Leoš Janáček’s From an Overgrown Path, which opens the program. It’s appropriate, for the entire program consists of works capturing the moment when sleep comes. They go by the names of lullaby, berceuse, wiegenlied, and more, but they have are consistent in tone, and listeners in search of an album with which to unwind and even to fall asleep to will be satisfied here. The program is very artfully constructed so as to deepen the mood with each piece. (That is, until Helmut Lachenmann’s Wiegenmusik, a modernist work that may wake one right up again.) There are some familiar examples of the genre from Liszt, Brahms (the “Brahms Lullaby,” in an arrangement by Max Reger), and Chopin, but also lesser-known works by Sergei Lyapunov, the worth-knowing female composer Mel Bonis, and Bryce Dessner, whose entrancing Song for Octave confirms that he has moved definitively beyond being included on programs simply to draw in rock music fans. However, it’s Chamayou’s playing that ties the whole thing together; he keeps the music at a low but constant intensity and has remarkable control throughout. This is an ideal gift for those with a new baby, or really for anyone else.
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