<<  -- 3 --  John Bell Young    PERSUASIVELY DELIVERED

What Ms Fleming's readings of certain works in this recital lack, then, is enchantment. Among other things, that is what distinguishes the readings of the greatest interpreters of chansons, namely, Claire Croiza, Charles Panzera, Suzanne Danco, Pierre Bernac and Hugues Cuenod. More's the pity, she is ill-suited temperamentally and vocally to Rachmaninoff, where she could learn a great deal from its pre-eminent protagonists, Zara Dolukhanová, Joanna Poracková and of course, the wonderful Elizabeth Söderström.

For his part, Mr Thibaudet, an able accompanist, parades his fetish for annoying stacatissimos as he again indulges the anemic tone and disdain of intonational inflection that have made him famous, and which compromise so severely Debussy, Fauré and Rachmaninoff. Even so, he transforms, as if by some miracle, into an utterly spectacular pianist on every level in the Marx and Strauss. Alas, the piano is poorly miked, becoming little more than a blur, especially in the French songs.

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