If you have the ability to hear in colors (I envy that) these pieces will absolutely transport you to an impressionist's world. This is more so in the two shorter works on this disc than in the symphony.
Much like magicians create their effect with smoke and mirrors, Chausson affects me with a similar magical touch. I find I am able to approach Chausson better when I think of his music as being of light and shadows. If the impressionists shifted their concern from subjects like irises to the light that surrounds the subject, Chausson shifted his concern from the drama of harmonic shifts to the way the elements of music affect time." I have quoted this passage not because I agree with all of it, but because it seems a good point of discussion. In it he argues that Chausson's "…music seems to be about 'doing' he seems unconcerned with the memorableness or the import of the artifact he leaves behind…". I use this phrase because another source I read was a brief review of some of his chamber music by Stratton Rawson in one of the major classical music journals. Only the last twenty years of his short life, however, were spent "doing music". He lived from 1855 to 1899, dying after a freak bicycle accident. I also read what was available in insert notes about the composer. I had, at one time, Mata's on Delos but parted with it some time ago. The latest Schwann Opus in my collection (Summer 1997….I get one each summer and haven't gotten this year's as yet) lists 7 recordings of the piece. For the record, I have Plausson's recording on EMI ( 64686) Fournet on Denon ( 3675, nla?) and Monteux's on RCA ( 9026-61899) in addition to this latest release. I pulled out every other recording I have of this piece and spent several days comparing and contrasting them. This turned out to be a study in Chausson.
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