Search - Robilette, Freeman, Russian State Symphony :: French Piano Album

Franck works fill half the album. The Variations symphoniques is an excellent performance, very sensitively played by the soloist and supported by the fine Russian orchestra under an American conductor. He also gives us a beautiful version of the Prélude, Chorale et Fugue, lively playing of a piece that can be tedious. John Robiletté also offers idiomatic versions of miniatures by Fauré and Poulenc, along with three of the four Chopin Impromptus. The fourth, the famous Fantaisie-Impromptu, turns very strange, as Robiletté plays it slowly and without much sense of motion. But the rest of the disc is excellent. --Leslie Gerber