Rinaldo Alessandrini, Anne Gastinel, Accentus - Mélancolie (2014)

This two CD sampler is a terrific way to become familiar with some of the CDs available on the wonderful French label Naïve. And the idea for the sampler is that it contains primarily music that could generally be considered melancholy or restful or soothing, depending on your take on the individual works presented here. Some of these excerpts are old friends as I am fond of much of the Naive catalog which includes recordings by the fabulous French a cappella Accentus Choir; the amazing pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard; the American pianist long resident in France, Noël Lee; Rinaldo Alessandrini's baroque group, Concerto Italiano as well as Christophe Rousset's Les Talens Lyriques; cellist Anne Gastinel; impressive singers like soprano Sandrine Piau, tenor Martyn Hill, contralto Sara Mingardo, Spanish soprano Maria Bayo, counter-tenor Derek Lee Ragin, and others. And even though his excerpt (Chopin's Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4) is short, the transcendent playing of pianist Grigory Sokolov, surely one of the world's greatest pianists, is worth the price of this budget release all by itself.

Another highlight, familiar to me from its original release on a full CD of transcriptions sung by Accentus, is Gerard Passon's choral arrangement of the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Even you Mahler fans who are purists will be impressed with this lovely performance. As well Accentus performs Barber's choral arrangement of his 'Adagio for Strings' which uses the words of the 'Agnus Dei.' Sumptuously, movingly sung here.

I was surprised that I enjoyed a piece composed by Stephane Grappelli, the jazz violinist (a genre I generally abhor). It was composed for a movie score and is entirely winning as played by violinist Laurent Korcia and pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Another 'arrangement' that I was unfamiliar with was Mendelssohn's reworking of the marvelous contralto aria from the St. Matthew Passion, 'Erbarme dich.' I frankly cannot hear how it differs from the original (and as I've just moved and all my CDs and scores are still in unopened boxes) I could not make a direct comparison. Soprano Angela Kazimierczuk sings like an angel in this beloved aria.