Le Chemin Creux

Paul Ladmirault (1877-1944) was a leading Breton composer, who having written and had staged an opera at age 16. studied composition with Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire (Ravel was a contemporary there). During the First World War, Ladmirault was a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front. From 1920 he was a professor at the conservatoire in Nantes (his birthplace). He was not a prolific composer for piano, and most of his larger scale works are for orchestra or chamber combinations. For much more information on his life, see: http://bit.ly/137ZeXW This meditative piece is dedicated to the French pianist and teacher Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix (1882-1955), a star student of Isidor Philipp at the Paris Conservatoire, and a friend and early champion of the music of Federico Mompou. A sunken or hollow lane is a geographical feature found particularly in Ladmirault's native Brittany, Normandy, and also Southern England, where an old road is in a deep ancient cutting, whose origins are obscure. For more infomation, see http://bit.ly/1wYi8wV . Musically the piece reminds me of the work of Guy Ropartz and also Déodat de Séverac (particularly in the last few impressionistic bars). My apologies for having to reupload this - the first version inadvertantly contained 10 minutes of black space and a redundant take owing to an editing error! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Played by Phillip Sear http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: http://bit.ly/19LJYA0 )