Romances Emmanuel Pahud & Eric Le Sage

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): 3 Romances, Op. 94:
• 1 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 94: No. 1 Nicht schnell 03:18
• 2 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 94: No. 2 Einfach, innig 03:50
• 3 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 94: No. 3 Nicht schnell 04:14
• Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896): 3 Romances, Op. 22:
• 4 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 22: No. 1 Andante molto 03:09
• 5 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 22: No. 2 Allegretto. Mit zartem Vortrage 02:55
• 6 Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 22: No. 3 Leidenschaftlich schnell 03:45
• Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 - 1847): Lieder:
• 7 Mendelssohn: 5 Lieder, Op.10: No. 3 Abendbild 02:10
• 8 Mendelssohn: 6 Lieder, Op. 9: No. 6 Die Mainacht 02:01
• 9 Mendelssohn: 6 Lieder, Op. 7: No. 4 Du bist die Ruh 01:41
• 10 Mendelssohn: 5 Lieder, Op. 10: No. 2 Vorwurf 02:24
• 11 Mendelssohn: 6 Lieder, Op. 1: No. 2 Wanderlied 01:39
• 12 Mendelssohn: 6 Lieder, Op. 1: No. 3 Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass 02:06
• Robert Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73:
• 13 Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73: I. Zart und mit Ausdruck 03:15
• 14 Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73: II. Lebhaft, leicht 03:32
• 15 Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73: III. Rasch und mit Feuer 04:12
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847): Sonata in F Major, MWV Q26:
• 16 Mendelssohn: Sonata in F Major, MWV Q26: I. Allegro vivace 08:47
• 17 Mendelssohn: Sonata in F Major, MWV Q26: II. Adagio 06:35
• 18 Mendelssohn: Sonata in F Major, MWV Q26: III. Assai vivace 05:21
• Total Runtime 01:04:54

Info for Romances

Immersed in the world of romanticism: SWR called him a "magician", the Tagespiegel compared him to Pan, the Greek god of flute playing. Without a doubt, there is hardly anyone who can hold a candle to the flutist Emmanuel Pahud in his field. On his album Romances, he dives into the world of Romanticism together with the pianist Eric Le Sage: a great musical passion within his wide-ranging repertoire, which extends from the Baroque to the Modern.

Two pairs of composers - the married couple Robert and Clara Schumann and the siblings Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn - face each other on this album. The title Romances alludes first of all to the three "Romances" for oboe and piano that Robert Schumann composed in 1849 in a frenzy of inspiration. Emmanuel Pahud interprets the romantic miniatures in the arrangement of his great model Jean-Pierre Rampal and contrasts them with Clara Schumann's Romances for violin and piano from 1853. Like the other works on the album (including songs by Fanny Mendelssohn and Felix Mendelssohn's much too rarely played Violin Sonata in F major), they were arranged for flute, thus expanding the spectrum for the instrument in a fascinating way. Quite in the spirit of Emmanuel Pahud, who is always on the lookout for exciting new flute repertoire. He could hardly have found anything more beautiful.

Emmanuel Pahud, flute
Eric Le Sage, piano

Emmanuel Pahu
French and Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six. He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire, and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet. He won 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Competitions, and at age 22 Emmanuel joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position which he still holds today. In addition, he enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician.

Emmanuel appears regularly at prominent concert series, festivals and orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated as a soloist with leading conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nézét-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich, Zinman. Emmanuel is a dedicated chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, as well as jazzing with Jacky Terrasson. In 1993, Emmanuel founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence together with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which is still a unique chamber music festival today. He also continues chamber music performances and recordings with “Les Vents Français”, one of the premiere wind quintets featuring François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic. He is committed to expanding the flute repertoire and commissions new flute works every year to composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Eric Montalbetti and Luca Francesconi . Since 1996, Emmanuel has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards, resulting in one of the most significant contributions to recorded flte music. Emmanuel was honoured to receive the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, and is HonRAM of the Royal Academy of Music. He also is an Ambassador for Unicef.

Éric Le Sage
is established as the representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”

Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras at the highest level such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremer Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Münchner Kammer Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with conductors like Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Pablo Gonzalez, Fabien Gabel, Sir Jeffrey Tate, François Leleux, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Alondra de la Parra, Lionel Bringuier, François Leleux, Michael Stern, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

Eric has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues across the world such as Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Radio France, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Dresden Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ludwigsburg Festival, Prague’s Rudolfinium, Taipei National Concert Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dublin’s celebrity series, Edinburgh International Festival, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, la Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Potsdam Sanssouci, Brussels’ Bozar, Berlin’s Boulezsaal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie.

In 2010 Eric Le Sage released Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano for the composer’s 200th anniversary. He has been invited to perform in this context in major venues around the world. These recordings for the French label Alpha (Outhere) were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings. Following this successful project, Eric Le Sage recorded later a bundle of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano, all covered with awards.

In 2018 he started recording Brahms ’complete chamber music for B Records. The cycle’s 9 th volume was released in May 2021 In 2019 he released Fauré’s Nocturnes on Alpha, as well as Schumann’s Dichterliebe with tenor Julian Pregardien. Both albums won international critical acclaim.

In 2020 and 2021 Eric also released two chamber music albums on Alpha: Vienne 1900 featuring works by Schoenberg, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Berg, and Nino Rota with Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Daishin Kashimoto, Aurélien Pascal and more.

A true chamber music lover, Eric regularly plays with friends like Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Quatuor Ebène, François Leleux, les Vents Français, François Salque, Lise Berthaud, Daishin Kashimoto, Olivier Latry and many other musicians.

Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings on RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after awards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.

Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Booklet for Romances