The four movements of Alexandre Guilmant’s Symphonie tirée were transcribed by the composer for piano and harmonium from his eight-movement Araine, a “Symphonie-Cantata” for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Frankly, the music offers little besides faded charm in the Adagio and Danse des Songes and foursquare puffery in the big outer movements. Yet the glittery piano writing proves oddly compatible with the harmonium’s wheezy lyrical passages. This also is true in gentler, sickeningly sweet works like the A major Pastorale and F major Prière. At least Guilmant rambles within tasteful, proportionate boundaries in his Mendelssohn-derived Scherzo Capriccioso and an A major Finale that proves how Schumann’s genius does not automatically rub off on those who crib his obsessive dotted rhythms. And if you crave a loosely fashioned school fugue in the style of watered-down César Franck, try the Elégie Fugue in F minor. Ernst Breidenbach and Johannes Matthias Michel play this music with well-honed unanimity of ensemble and stylish flair, and my rating reflects the performances rather than the works themselves.
