The Proust Album

Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is full of musical references, from Beethoven and Wagner to Fauré, Franck and the fictional composer Vinteuil, whose music forms an integral part of the books’ marriage of heart and mind. Proust developed his musical loves through concerts at fashionable Parisian soirées, often with his friend and lover, the composer Reynaldo Hahn. Pianist Shani Diluka’s fascinating exploration of Proust’s musical world begins, in fact, with a rare performance of Hahn’s heady Concerto in E Major, before she takes us on a tour through Chaminade, Wagner, Strauss and Fauré’s song “Le Secret”. The only piece referenced in In Search of Lost Time, it’s sensually performed here by soprano Natalie Dessay. Tantalisingly and credibly, Diluka, alongside violinist Pierre Fouchenneret, imagines how Vinteuil’s violin sonata might have sounded, piecing together beautiful works by Hahn, Ysaÿe and Chaminade.