There are a great many recordings of these beautiful pieces - and some offer really wonderful playing - however this collection by this artist holds a special place in my heart for a number of reasons...

...the playing is truly in a well grounded French style, as befits the music, making this offering authoritative. 

The sound is multi-layered - beyond the typical presentations of melody louder than the accompaniment (an academic but certainly not musical approach). 

There is space between the notes - which is to say that, while metric expectations are observed, the meter incorporates a fluidity that meter always should.

And, finally, Ernest Ulmer was the second in an important lineage of mentors/guides I was blessed to have during my training at Manhattan School of Music.

American pianists often don’t really understand the requirements in French music, so resulting performances and recordings can fail to gain traction; they may be pretty but they are often boring.

Mr. Ulmer’s musical roots and connections are well watered in the French style, having studied and lived in France, with none other than Harold Bauer and Dora Zaslavsky as his teachers along with having a musical guide and personal friend in Nadia Boulanger! ...Quite a “Blue Book” that fully explains the excellence and prismatic playing in these recordings and his live performances.

I remain, even after so many years, ever grateful to this generous pianist and pedagogue for his example of excellence and for giving me an appreciation and understanding of the French school as I find it in the music of Ravel, Debussy, Franck, Jongen, Rameau, and others whom I deeply love.


This album is quite hard to find these days - but here is a link to a listing for the vinyl.