LE BABILLARD, Loïc Chahine

… intense, brilliant, sumptuous sonority over the whole range of the violin of Virgil Boutellis-Taft, very “into the string”, magnified by a very sure bow … Let’s listen to the “Intermède” of Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano: how evident! One has the impression that this amiable entertainment, elegant and refined, is born of itself, as if the two performers were each Debussy himself. There is not a single phrase that does not seem perfectly in its place, played exactly as it should be … Let’s listen again to the Janacek Sonata: everything is there, burning lyricism, but without superfluous pathetic effusion, the quasi-demiurgic power of inspiration without the impression of demonstration, accuracy without coldness. And yet, it is not an easy work to listen to, in its intense concentration … We listen to the whole disc with feelings that range from simple pleasure to enthusiasm – a disc that reaches, in its best moments, an incandescent intensity