As with all great piano composers, Cecile Chaminade produced a spectrum of works which can be assimilated by performers of all levels. These run the gamut from the Pastorale enfantine and her two children's albums to the current work Etudes concerts, Op. 35. Interestingly, a lengthy article by the composer on the fingerings and interpretation of her works appeared in the periodicals Etude and... The Ladies' Home Journal, a reminder that at one time music was one of a woman's many domestic responsibilities in an era when pianos outnumbered gramophones. However, by dint of her talent and musicality, Chaminade was able to forego the drawing room for the concert hall.

The six etudes, composed at the outset of Chaminade's rise to fame, largely require a professional technique, although not on a Lisztian level. Although sinewy in some parts, the writing is mostly clear and uncluttered in the typically Gallic fashion. The opening "Scherzo in C" is spry and fleet and given a but a slightly diabolic tinge from the generous use of the tritone. The following "Automne" is in the Romantics' favored key of D flat, the main section featuring a familiar-sounding lyric melody and the mid-section cascades of thirty-second notes evoking, inevitably, falling, windswept leaves. "Fileuse" is carried along by a perpetuum mobile of gossamer sixteenth notes, and is followed by "Appassionato," the most thickly written and Germanic in its intensity. The ensuing "Impromptu" returns to the Franco-Slavic idiom, recalling Chopin in spots. The concluding "Tarantelle," while not too technically difficult from a pianist's point of view, requires a constant stream of energy to keep the swirling momentum of the Neapolitan dance alive.

© Wayne Reisig, Rovi