I slightly wonder about the order in which the four works are placed here, with darker-toned music of the 1920s preceding the intensely life-affirming Histoires naturelles of 1906 and the monumental Piano Trio composed at the start of the first World War. But these are committed performances and there is much to enjoy. The Swiss baritone Bernard Kruysen trained in Holland and his voice has a pleasingly vital, characterful and dramatic quality although it is not as sweet in itself as that of, say, Gerard Souzay in the same two song-cycles. His companion artists here are all Dutch, although the recording itself is German: the flute, cello and piano are all good in the ensemble of the Chansons madecasses and the pianist Gerard van Blerk is thoughtful too in the Histoires.
The performance of the very difficult duo Sonata of 1922 (beyond doubt Ravel's most bitter work and one that remains little known) is committed and exciting rather than tonally subtle, but the constant tension of the writing for violin and cello is conveyed well and I am reminded, not least in the scherzo second movement, of Roland-Manuel's memorable comment on the music's ''lyricism which spits like an angry cat''. After that, the Piano Trio is just a bit more ordinary: the Pantoum (scherzo) should sparkle more than this, as it does in the fluent Denon performance by the Kantorow/Muller/Rouvier Trio and the celebrated Philips account by the Beaux Arts, as well as the intelligent but less refined version by the Trio di Milano on Dynamic/Pinnacle, and the recording of the piano here is a little thick and heavy. But even if other versions of the Trio score in subtlety and imaginative scope over the one on the present CD, this is still a good performance and the issue as a whole is an attractive one and quite nicely recorded, while at 77 minutes it is well filled too.'