Alain Lefevre Archive

MATHIEU: Piano Concerto; GERSHWIN: An American in Paris – Alain Lefevre, piano/ Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/ Joann Falletta – Analekta

by Audiophile Audition | Nov 2, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

MATHIEU: Piano Concerto No. 3 in c minor, Op. 25; GERSHWIN: An American in Paris – Alain Lefevre, piano/ Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra/ Joann Falletta – Analekta AN 2 9299, 54:55 (9/8/17) [Distr. by E1] **** An adolescent Canadian composer’s precocious piano concerto finds vivid realization after painstaking reconstruction. Composer Andre Mathieu, “the Canadian Mozart,” performed at Town Hall in New York City on 3 February 1940, to begin rebuilding a career his father Rodolphe had crafted for the boy prodigy in Paris, so cruelly curtailed by the Nazi invasion of France. Mathieu (1929-1968) won the recognition of impraesario Arthur Judson, manager of the New York Philharmonic. Andre completed his Concerto No. 3 on 20 June 1943, and the second movement Andante had a private performance for Andre Kostelanetz, who then had an arrangement broadcast over CBS on 31 October 1943.  The Concerto proper remained suppressed until 1946/47, when it appeared, in part, in a movie – Whispering City – as arranged by Giuseppe Agostini. In 1947 Mathieu was approached by Radio-Canada to record this version. In new arrangements—by Marc Belanger and Alain Lefevre—the piece found acolytes—in its guise as Concerto de Quebec—in Philippe Entremont and Lefevre.  In 2008, Georges Nicholson […]