00:00 - I. Lent
04:48 - II. Andante moderato
07:09 - III. Andante sostenuto: Lent d'abord
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Bassoon: Julien Hardy
Piano: Simon Zaoui
Year of Recording: 2020
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"Koechlin composed his first work for the bassoon over a period between 1898 and 1907, titled Three Pieces op. 34 for bassoon and piano. It was premiered in March of 1908 by bassoonist Édouard Flament and pianist Jules Berny. Koechlin’s trio of the same title, Three Pieces op. 34bis, for flute, bassoon, and piano was also premiered as part of the same concert. Koechlin joined Flament and flautist Phillippe Gaubert for the trio, performing the piano part himself. Notably, Flament was a composer and conductor as well as a bassoonist and went on to conduct the Ballet Russes from 1930 - 1939.72 It took many years for the Three Pieces for bassoon and piano to be made available to the public, however they were published in 1989 and are now easily obtained.
The first movement of the Three Pieces op. 34 for bassoon and piano is titled simply “No. 1” and given the tempo marking, Lent. “No. 1,” only four minutes in duration, is the longest of the three movements. Koechlin writes an expressive soliloquy for the bassoon accompanied only minimally by chords in the piano. This movement is an early example of Koechlin’s emphasis on melody in the purest form. The harmonic pacing is very slow with only eight chord changes over the course of the movement. Koechlin bases “No. 1” in B minor, but obscures the tonality by using modal mixture and emphasizing the interval of a fifth instead of triadic harmony.
In “No. 2,” the second of the Three Pieces, Koechlin uses elements of the chorale style. Perhaps influenced by the chorales of Bach or by musical experiences in his own Protestant upbringing, the gentle, singable melody of the bassoon is accompanied by simple piano harmonizations. Koechlin marks the tempo andante moderato and instructs the bassoonist to play the melody smoothly or almost connected, as if playing the French horn. His choice of French horn for comparison may stem from his own experience playing the instrument.
Koechlin’s straight-forward use of D-flat major in “No. 2” is contrasted by much a more dissonant and harmonically complex third movement, “No. 3.” In place of simple harmonic progressions or truly singable melodies, Koechlin unifies this movement by repeating and developing a four-note, chromatic motive. His use of dense piano in the lowest octave contributes to the brooding quality of “No. 3.” Six bars before the end, Koechlin teases the listener with two C major triads, only to dash any hopes of a major resolution with a prominent E-flat in the bassoon melody. The final chord in C minor is an unsettling and dark contrast to the more hopeful tone of the first two movements.” (Amelia Fannin)
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