Building a library recommendation

Nominee for Classical Large Ensemble Album of the Year

“...a great addition to the catalog and very strongly recommended.”

Excellent album

“I have yet to hear a less-than-magnificent release from Louis Lortie, with his elegant playing, glorious sound and straightforward musicality ... one of the finest Poulenc discs to date from Chandos... “

Pianist magazine – April-May 2016 

"... I'm happy to say that Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier reveal the same zest and talent for these pieces as the composer himself. I've always enjoyed Lortie's natural musicality and gentle tone. Mercier is definitely on the same page with him here... The BBC have supplied Chandos with ideal sound, one of many acoustic successes coming from the Studio City, Salford. More Poulenc, please."

Fanfare - January/February 2016

"...I took a great deal of pleasure reviewing this CD and, as Dominy Clements noted in his review, it was tempting to just say that it has everything going for it and stop there Lortie and Mercier clearly seem to relish this music and all three works are given first-class treatment. Chandos have contributed a winner with these sparkling performances in state-of-the art sound and a glossy booklet containing Jean-Georges Béraud’s painting Au Café on the cover and scholarly notes inside." 

Recording of the Month

"...Performances of the soloists and orchestra are beyond reproach, and the sound quality is beautifully balanced between piano(s) and orchestra. Booklet notes are the usual standard for the label. There is no question that this is one of my discoveries for 2015, and begs the question of why I waited so long to make the acquaintance of Poulenc’s concertos." 

“ ...Best of all is the D minor Concerto (1932) with its haunting evocations of Balinese gamelan and Mozart, magically played by Lortie and Mercier The BBC Philharmonic and Gardner accompany impeccably.”   **** 

Pianiste - Maestro 

Performance ****       Recording ****

“... Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier perform it [Concerto for Two Pianos] with great panache, also capturing the work’s more reflective qualities, with Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic providing by turns zestful and sensitive accompaniment” 

“This programme has some of Poulenc’s most enjoyable music, performed in the safe and sensitive hands of Louis Lortie and with the excellent Edward Gardner at the helm of one of the UK’s finest orchestras After being treated to these three wonderful orchestral works we have the added gift of the intense Sonata for piano duet played with terrific zing and magnificently poetic depth by Lortier/Mercier This Chandos recording is admirably balanced if I had to take away just one Poulenc programme then CHAN 10875 would be my current first choice.” 

“...Having all of Poulenc’s concertante piano music on a single disc has to be a Good Thing. These performances are very decent too. You may have umpteen versions of the D minor concerto already, but now’s the time to acquire another one. Louis Lortie and regular duet partner Hélène Mercier give us a refreshingly pungent, sharp-edged take on the work. It’s still enormous fun, and we’re reminded of Poulenc’s brilliance in blending so many disparate elements with such gleeful aplomb” 

“...Lortie is joined by Hélène Mercier for cracking performances of the Two-Piano Concerto and the Sonata for four hands (1918, revised 1939), their distinctive acerbities given whiplash emphasis by both pianists (and by the orchestra in the concerto) and yet with their more lyrical leanings tenderly voiced. There are valuable interpretative insights here for even the most seasoned of Poulenc aficionados.” 

Album of the Week

“…Lortie and Mercier never leave one in doubt of their delight in, or idiomatic understanding of, Poulenc’s music; their rapport is complete in the Sonata for Two Pianos and two contrasting “encores”, the touching Elégie and the exhilarating, ultra-Parisian L’Embarquement pour Cythère, in which they positively waltz along the boulevards.”