It is five years since the Canadian violinist, Chantal Juillet, with this same conductor and orchestra, recorded the two Szymanowski violin concertos, coupling them with the Stravinsky (Decca, 10/93) and later following that disc up with a Korngold, Krenek and Weill concerto programme in the Entartete Musik series (4/97). She is also the dedicatee of the Goldschmidt Concerto, which she went on to record (again on Decca, 12/96). With such a sensitive, sweet-toned violinist this very well-compiled collection of French concertante pieces should have been a sure-fire success, but from the very opening item onwards, Ysaye’s Poeme elegiaque, there is a degree of reticence that prevents these lyrical inspirations from magnetizing the attention as keenly as they should. It is partly the recording balance, with the violin, far from being spotlit, set back a degree too far.
The Ysaye, over 15 minutes long, is in any case a piece that needs a dominant virtuoso for it to sustain its length, and here it seems to meander. The unaccompanied beginning of the Ravel Tzigane finds Juillet at her finest, thoughtful as well as passionate, using under-the-note coloration very effectively. But then, again, when the orchestra enter, she no longer seems to dominate, and in such a piece as Lalo’s Guitare it is the orchestra under Dutoit that conveys the panache, with the soloist as an incidental. I am also worried that the coloration is at times too distracting, though some ears will be readier to accept this than others. None the less, despite reservations this is a welcome collection of concertante pieces too readily neglected in the age of the CD, including not only staple items such as Tzigane and Chausson’s Poeme, but a sequence of charming raritites. Quite apart from the balance, the typically atmospheric Montreal recording is a degree cloudier and less well-defined than usual. '