Classical Music Releases | Jean-Michel Serres, Composer-pianist (Apfelsaft / Allemagne): Website

23 July 202624 July 2026

Gabriel Fauré: 3 Romances sans paroles, Op. 17, Jean-Michel Serres (piano), Allemagne, ALLMGN022 | Classical Music Recording Release

Liner Notes / Sleeve Notes

Gabriel Fauré’s Trois Romances sans paroles, Op. 17, composed around 1863 while he was still a student of Camille Saint-Saëns, represents one of his earliest significant contributions to the piano repertoire. Written well before the crystalline textures and extended harmonic language of the French Impressionist and Post-Romantic movements fully emerged, this set is deeply rooted in the mid-19th-century Romantic tradition, directly paying homage to Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. For a composer and pianist mapping the evolution of French keyboard literature, these three pieces provide a crucial structural link between traditional Romantic lyricism and the more elusive, atmospheric soundscapes that would eventually define the era.

The first romance in A-flat major features a tender, sustained melody floating over a continuous arpeggiated accompaniment, requiring careful voicing to maintain a true bel canto singing tone against the moving bass. The second piece, an agitated Allegro molto in A minor, shifts into a turbulent, syncopated texture that demands crisp rhythmic precision, distinct articulation, and sharp dynamic contrasts. The final romance returns to A-flat major with a serene, gently undulating Andante moderato, showcasing early traces of the subtle harmonic shifting and elegant restraint that would define Fauré’s mature style. While the technical demands are generally more accessible compared to his later nocturnes or the complex piano trios and quartets he would eventually write, mastering the subtle interplay of inner voices, lyrical phrasing, and seamless pedaling in this opus requires a highly sensitive touch to capture its youthful, unpretentious charm.

(Gemini)

Information & Details

01 Andante quasi allegretto
02 Allegro molto
03 Andante moderato

Genres: Romantic, Late Romantic, Impressionism, Piano Suite, Piano Duet, Salon Music, Piano for Four Hands

Similar Composers: Reynaldo Hahn, Ernest Chausson, Jules Massenet, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel

Cover Art: « Femme avec parasol dans un jardin » (1875) de Pierre-Auguste Renoir

from Allemagne, ALLMGN022

Released 24 July, 2026

10 July 202610 July 2026

Beethoven: 2 Sonatinas for Piano, WoO Anh. 5, Jean-Michel Serres (piano), Allemagne, ALLMGN020 | Classical Music Recording Release

Liner Notes / Sleeve Notes

The Two Sonatinas for Piano in G major and F major, cataloged as Anh. 5, occupy a fascinating and somewhat mysterious corner of Ludwig van Beethoven’s legacy. Published posthumously in Hamburg, these brief, two-movement works lack absolute proof of Beethoven’s authorship, prompting many musicologists to believe they were composed during his youth in Bonn or perhaps written by a contemporary altogether. Despite this ongoing scholarly debate, they remain deeply woven into classical piano pedagogy, serving as a vital bridge for intermediate students moving away from basic exercises toward the grand structural mechanics of the classical sonata form.

The Sonatina in G major opens with a cheerful, highly articulate Moderato that mirrors the elegant, balanced phrase structures typical of late eighteenth-century classicism. Its second movement is a celebrated Romanze, written in a lilting six-eight time signature, which flows with a gentle, songlike innocence that captures the ear immediately. In contrast, the Sonatina in F major presents slightly higher technical demands. Its opening Allegro assai features lively sixteenth-note runs and Alberti bass accompaniment patterns that require a more nimble finger technique. This is followed by a spirited Rondo marked Allegro, which thrives on contrasting dynamics and a playful rhythmic drive.

Whether genuinely penned by Beethoven or a skilled contemporary, these sonatinas capture the foundational essence of the Classical era in miniature. They distill complex architectural principles down to their simplest expressions, allowing pianists to develop phrasing, finger independence, and emotional nuance without being overwhelmed by the epic technical demands of Beethoven’s major canonical works.

(Gemini)

Information & Details

01 Piano Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5: 1. Moderato
02 Piano Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5: 2. Romanze
03 Piano Sonatina in F Major, Anh. 5: 1. Allegro assai
04 Piano Sonatina in F Major, Anh. 5: 2. Rondo, Allegro

Genres: Piano Sonatina. Piano Solo, Classical Era, Vienna Classicism

Similar Composers: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Muzio Clementi, Anton Diabelli

from Allemagne, ALLMGN020

Released 10 July, 2026

3 July 20263 July 2026

Mozart: London Sketchbook, K. 15a-ss, Piano Solo Pieces, Volume 2, Jean-Michel Serres (piano), Allemagne, ALLMGN019 | Classical Music Recording Release

Liner Notes / Sleeve Notes

The London Sketchbook (cataloged as K. 15a–ss) offers an intimate, unvarnished look into the developing mind of an eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Composed between 1764 and 1765 during the Mozart family’s grand tour of Europe, this notebook of 43 brief, untitled keyboard pieces serves as a vital musicological bridge between mere imitation and independent creation. While the family was staying in Chelsea, London, Leopold Mozart fell dangerously ill with a severe throat infection. To ensure his father had absolute quiet, the young Wolfgang was kept away from the keyboard. Rather than remaining idle, he used this period to learn how to write fluently with pen and ink. According to modern scholarship, the true purpose of this sketchbook was creative autonomy. For the first time, Mozart was putting his musical ideas directly onto paper on two staves without needing his father to dictate or refine them, though Leopold’s presence is still felt through small pencil corrections marked throughout the manuscript.

The sketchbook function as a musical diary rather than a unified performance cycle. Most pieces are characteristically brief, showing the young composer absorbing the galant vocabulary of mid-1760s London, particularly the influence of Johann Christian Bach. A large portion of the notebook consists of standard dance movements typical of the era, such as minuets and contredanses, which demonstrate an early mastery of symmetrical phrase lengths and standard binary form. The textures are overwhelmingly homophonic, relying heavily on simple melody-and-accompaniment formulas like the Alberti bass. Interspersed among these dances are more ambitious, developmental essays that point toward symphonic and sonata forms. Works in G minor and F major extend past the three-minute mark, showcasing a growing understanding of larger tonal architecture and primitive thematic development. Furthermore, the inclusion of minor keys—such as the haunting Siciliano in D minor and the Gigue in C minor—reveals an early sensitivity to a darker, more theatrical expressiveness that hints at his mature style.

To view the London Sketchbook simply as juvenile trivia misses its deeper pedagogical and historical value. Its significance is rooted in its absolute transparency as an artifact of process, documenting exactly how a musical mind transitions from improvising at an instrument to organizing abstract structures on a page. It captures a sponge-like intellect processing the textures, cadential patterns, and emotional contrasts of European musical capitals in real time. For modern musicians and scholars, these 43 sketches strip away the myth of effortless, fully-formed genius, revealing instead a highly industrious child learning the concrete physical craft of notation, one small London page at a time.

(Gemini)

Information & Details

1. Allegro, K. 15a
2. Andantino, K. 15b
3. Menuett, K. 15c
4. Rondeau, K. 15d
5. Contredanse, K. 15e
6. Tempo di Minuetto, K. 15f
7. Präludium für Orgel, K. 15g
8. Contredanse, K. 15h
9. Minuetto mit Minore, K. 15i
10. Minuetto mit Minore, K. 15k
11. Contredanse mit Minore, K. 15l
12. Minuetto, K. 15m
13. Andante, K. 15n
14. Andante, K. 15o
15. Sonatensatz, K. 15p
16. Andante, K. 15q
17. Andante, K. 15r
18. Kleines Rondeau mit Minore, K. 15s
19. Sonatensatz, K. 15t
20. Siciliano, K. 15u
21. Sonaten-Finalsatz, K. 15v
22. Allemande, K. 15w
23. Finale einer Sonate, K. 15x
24. Minuetto, K. 15y
25. Gigue, K. 15z
26. Schlußsatz einer Sonate, K. 15aa
27. Schlußsatz einer Sonate, K. 15bb
28. Tempo di Minuetto, K. 15cc
29. Andante, K. 15dd
30. Minuetto, K. 15ee
31. Minuetto, K. 15ff
32. Contredanse en Rondeau, K. 15gg
33. Rondeau, K. 15hh
34. Andante, K. 15ii
35. Sonatensatz, K. 15kk
36. Schlußsatz einer Sonate, K. 15ll
37. Andante, K. 15mm
38. Movement to a Piano Sonata (Fragment), K. 15nn
39. Tempo di Minuetto, K. 15oo
40. Minuetto, K. 15pp
41. Minuetto, K. 15qq
42. Minuetto (Fragment), K. 15rr
43. Fugue for 4 Voices (Fragment), K. 15ss