Jean Francaix had his first opus published in Paris in 1921, when he was nine. His music has remained an essential ingredient of French artistic life ever since: beautifully constructed, elegantly shaped, gratefully written for the players. There are the witticisms too – in both the man and his music, the joie de vivre was unmistakable and infectious.
Listening to the four works on this disc, I found myself remembering Mme Francaix’s home-made chocolate cake, which alone was worth a trip across the Channel. How much chocolate cake one can manage at a sitting is, of course, a personal matter, and I do find her husband’s music sits more easily on the soul in small, carefully spaced quantities. And, rather unkindly, I must ask: is there any true profundity here? Or is that like looking for jokes in Bruckner?
I can’t speak too highly, though, of Mobius’s performances. Technically they are absolutely assured (though the music is gratefully written it is not easy) and Francaix’s keen ear for sonority is finely served. Careful thought has obviously gone into the phrasing, too, although it can’t entirely disguise Francaix’s natural reliance on four-bar sections. Invidious though it may be to single out any one player, I particularly like Lorna McGhee’s flute playing, which reminds me of Marcel Moyse and ‘a time ere the disease of vibrato germed’. Altogether a must for chocaholics.'