10/10
Duo Praxedis: Praxedis Hug-Rütti, harp, and Praxedis Geneviève Hug, piano. Ars Produktion, 2023.
With a flurry of notes and a rush of emotion, the latest disc Signature featuring mother and daughter Duo Praxedis gets its start. The duo aims to bring the unique sound world of the harp and piano combination to our ears with music seldom heard. It’s expansive, rich, colorful and when blended, offers up something altogether new, a sumptuous reverberation of frothy and vibrating strings.
Take the first work by Swiss organist and Bach scholar Rudolf Lutz. His La Folia from 2018 hearkens back to an ancient form. Literally meaning madness or folly, the original tune goes back to the 17th century and was used by composers as wide ranging as Vivaldi to Vangelis. Dedicated to the Duo, the music wanders from folk song through romanticism, dipping into bossa nova, tango, and American jazz as it spins a tale of the history of music outside the bounds of classical. It’s a stunning vehicle for this superb ensemble, accentuating their outstanding technique and ease speaking each other’s musical language as if two grand pianos with one that just happens to be standing on its head.
Henri Herz’s Grand Duo du Couronnement elicits a sparkling conversation of complex arpeggios and sweeping phrases. The duo brings elegance and panache to God Save the Queen. Where this music could sound overly sweet, even sacchariferous, Praxedis Hug-Rütti offers voluminosity and a buoyancy so evanescent it’s weightless. Likewise, Praxedis Geneviève Hug digs into her highly acrobatic variation with the mindset of a ballerina en pointe, as if to say,“This is extremely difficult, but you’ll never see me sweat!”
Altogether different is Rolf Urs Ringerr’s Coucher du soleil, a study in the explosion of color as the sun sets. Ringger references a painting by Marc Chagall in this work written for the Duo in which magic happens over the sea. He makes use of the combustible and intense tonal possibilities of the duo. Wondrously performed, their playing creates just the mood for the following romantic work of six nocturnes Cadeaux de Noces, delicate and tender, a wedding gift played with style and reserve.
Notable on the disc is a superbly haunting work by Xavier Dayer written for the duo in 2019. Dans le tombeau ô ma bien-aimée is based on a Basque song awash in longing and sorrow. The duo leans into the mystery and intimacy by muffling the sound and creating an antique quality as if instruments from another time heard in a dream. It’s absolutely stunning.
The recording is rounded out with a Fantasie by harpist and student of Krumpholtz, Jean-François Naderman. Named the first harp professor at the Paris Conservatory, Naderman’s work is filled with challenge even as its simplicity is ever-present, an ideal world in which to reside for the exquisite Duo Praxedis.
