Marcelle Meyer - Les Introuvables de Marcelle Meyer, Vol. 2 (1994)

The French pianist Marcelle Meyer made these recordings of music by Francois Couperin, Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti and Rossini in Paris between 1946 and 1955. Celebrated for her performances of French piano music, notably perhaps that of Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel, Meyer was none the less a zealous champion of the eighteenth-century harpsichordists. Bach's keyboard music played an important part in her daily studies and, together with Couperin, Rameau and Scarlatti, occupied a significant place in her public recital programmes. Unlike her contemporary, Wanda Landowska, Meyer had no mission to rehabilitate the harpsichord, but simply treasured its repertoire on its own merit and was indefatigable in her determination to bring it before as wide an audience as possible. Her recording of Rameau's Pieces de clavecin was reissued on two LPs in EMI's excellent References series in 1983 (not generally obtainable in the UK) to mark the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth; much else here, though, has not been available for considerably longer.
Meyer's Rameau is full of poetic insight, illuminatingly expressive but devoid of any misplaced sentimentality. But inevitably, the more stylistically and technically advanced pieces of the 1724 and c1729 collections fare better on a modern piano than the miniatures of the 1706 anthology, which remains more firmly rooted in the harpsichordist's realm. That is not to say, however, that Meyer glosses over them in any way – the two Allemandes, for example, are charmingly played – but that movements such as the initial ''Prelude non mesure'' simply do not make coherent sense on the piano. No, it is not here but in pieces such as ''Les tendres plaintes'', ''Les niais de Sologne'' and its double, ''Les tourbillons'' (all from the 1724 Suite), the Gavotte in A minor with its variations, ''Les trois mains'' (Suite in A minor, c1729), ''L'Egyptienne'' (Suite in G) with its Scarlatti-like scale passages, ''Les Cyclopes'' and ''Les Soupirs'' (both from the Suite in D), that Meyer's extraordinary sensibility lures us convincingly into the pianist's world. Only ''La Villageoise'' (Suite in E minor), perhaps, disappointed me on account of her forcefully emphatic view of a piece in which I sense a greater degree of lyricism than she allows.
The other chief beneficiary of this precious four-disc compilation is Domenico Scarlatti, 32 of whose sonatas Meyer recorded in the 1950s. Not a single disappointment awaits the listener here. Her athletic technique, her love of clearly defined articulation and her unfailingly lucid textures are but among the more obvious qualities in her playing; over and above that are her ability to capture and sustain a particular effect and her feeling for the underlying poetry of Scarlatti's music. I have listened to these performances many times over with ever increasing enjoyment. Her selection from Scarlatti's vast keyboard treasure-trove was discerning and must often have seemed in those days well off the beaten track.
There are delights, too, to be found among the Couperin pieces – Meyer carefully chose those which lend themselves to the piano – and a selection of five pieces from Rossini's Peches de ma vieillesse; but it is chiefly for the Rameau and Scarlatti that this set of discs occupies a place of high interest. Meyer, as I say, was an artist who was skilled in evoking a wide spectrum of moods but it was in the evocation of that quietly contemplative, melancholy spirit, perhaps recalling the paintings of her contemporary, Marie Laurencin, that she excelled. The discs have been carefully and effectively remastered and the warm, intimate sound of the piano is a constant pleasure. Strongly recommended.