This recording, featuring Madeleine Milhaud, is of historical importance. The composer’s widow was, of course, younger than he and, as she says in the notes, his lifelong poor health meant that “I began my career as a nurse the day of our marriage”. Although she is now elderly, the artistry of this former actress and amateur pianist remains undimmed and her participation in this recording contributes much. Her contribution is literary rather than strictly musical, consisting principally of reading passages from Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in conjunction with Milhaud’s series of miniature piano pieces drawn from a 1933 film written for Jean Renoir.
The 12 Saudades do Brasil are pithy piano sketches that reflect the composer’s love of a country that he first encountered in his twenties. This performance is pleasing but could offer more contrasts and the recording lacks bite: a more vivid account comes from the Israeli pianist Boaz Sharon in his recent recording. Mme Milhaud’s participation begins with La muse menagere, which is not otherwise represented in the catalogue. It consists of 15 short piano pieces written for her in 1945 and affectionately describes such of her household routines as laundry, piano-duet playing and fortune-telling with cards. Here she merely announces the titles of these attractive, unpretentious sketches, and in reasonably good English too. Whether this procedure enhances the performance is open to question, but it is done tastefully and Alexandre Tharaud’s playing is exemplary.
With Madame Bovary, Mme Milhaud has simply chosen extracts from the novel to read between the 17 pieces, again in English, doubtless with a view to Naxos’s wider audience. Her voice evokes great atmosphere, Flaubert’s prose is of the finest and the translation is idiomatic. This imaginative new issue is a valuable addition to the Milhaud catalogue.'