While it isn't unusual to construct a recital program from similarly themed pieces of music, it is usual to do it with a majority of unknown works by unknown composers, as
Jean-Pierre Ferey has done with Musiques de la Mer. Only four of the pieces here -- three by
Debussy, one by
Ravel -- are well-known. The rest are a mixture of late Romantic to contemporary pieces, including a few by the pianist himself. They all work together to produce an exhibit of seascapes, so to speak, most with a view from or on the shore. There are similarities between pieces, especially in the moodiness of them and a translucency and sparseness in their textures, but there is just enough variety to outweigh those. Jean Cras was a naval officer who composed while on shipboard. His two pieces here, Maritime and Au Fil de l'eau, are very much in the vein of
Debussy and
Ravel, naturally evocative of water and the sea. Léon Boëllmann's Sur la Mer has the rolling waves, a foreboding melody, and the passion of a more Romantic era. The
Koechlin and Malipiero works are more modal in tonality and are like pensive improvisations. The newest pieces, by
Ferey and the excerpts from
Aubert Lemeland's Les Ballades du Soldat, are less tonal than the rest of the works here, but the emotional tones and the uncomplicated textures fit perfectly with the other pieces.
Ferey finishes the program with a brilliant reading of
Debussy's L'Isle joyeuse. What's disappointing about this recital is the all too brief notes and the sound. Because most of the composers are not well known, more information about them would have been welcome. As for the sound, it feels stunted, as if it were recorded in a small, airtight studio, which contradicts the expanse of the sea.
Ferey's captivating program and thoughtful performance deserves more room to breathe.