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La Bonne Chanson - French Chamber Songs
Anne Sofie von Otter
Classical - Released January 1, 1996 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Mélodies de Delage, Jaubert & Chausson
Dame Felicity Lott/L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Armin Jordan/Jean-Claude Bouveresse
Classical - Released July 7, 2008 | Warner Classics
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The Qobuz Ideal Discography
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Reflet
Sandrine Piau
Classical - Released January 12, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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In a world of "singles," pursued even by classical music labels nowadays, here is a whole album that makes up a single, sublime musical utterance. Reflet is a follow-up, similarly concerned with light effects, to soprano Sandrine Piau's German-language Clair-Obscur of a few years back. The German songs might have been a bigger stretch for Piau than the French material here, but Reflet has possibly an even more sublime coherence. One feels that every note is almost foreordained as the program opens with classic orchestral songs from Berlioz, Henri Duparc, and the less common Charles Koechlin, proceeding into darker, more mysterious realms with Ravel's Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, and ending with the youthful ebullience of Britten's Quatre chansons françaises. An illustration of how carefully calibrated everything is here comes with two Debussy pieces, Clair de lune and "Pour remercier la pluie" (from the Six Épigraphes Antiques), arranged for orchestra from other media. These serve as entr'actes between the sections of Piau's program, and they should by all rights have been annoying: aren't there enough genuine orchestral pieces that could have filled the bill? But just listen. These fit into the patterns that run through the whole album, and they make perfect sense, just like everything else. Piau's voice is delicate, soaring, and richly beautiful; one of the miracles of the current scene is its durability and versatility. Her support from conductor Jean-François Verdier, leading the Victor Hugo Orchestra, is confidently smooth, never intruding on the spell Piau weaves. A magnificent orchestral song recital that made classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Par un matin (Caplet, Kaspar, Chausson, Marçot, Poulenc)
Ensemble Esquisses
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 15, 2023 | Evidence (LTR)
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Qobuzissime
Founded in 2017 by young choral and orchestral conductor Guillemette Daboval, the Ensemble Esquisses is an all-female choir with an ever-changing line-up made up of singers who have only recently graduated from their studies. With one shared desire, the ensemble are drawn to repertoire for equal voices and unison, which the young choristers explore throughout Par un Matin, the group’s debut album released on the Evidence label. The sophisticated programme offers a selective view of the 20th and 21st centuries, with André Caplet’s “Messe à 3 Voix”, Chausson's elegiac “Chant Funèbre Op.28” and Poulenc's “Litanies à la Vierge Noire” as well as a world premiere of Olivier Kaspar's “Chansons Erotiques” (inspired by bawdy texts from the 16th century) and the “Agnus” from composer Caroline Marçot. The task of singing with equal voices is an extremely difficult one since it requires an extremely heightened ability to listen to each other’s voices, as well as a great deal of self-sacrifice in search of a collective timbre. This state of mind often requires years of work and, more specifically, maturity. We’re not sure what type of magic is at work here, but the combined effort of Guillemette Daboval and her singers has produced something of striking purity. There are real layers at play here: the textures, the melodic accents and inflections, the roundness of the melismas. The precision of movement becomes all the more impressive in this kaleidoscopic choice of repertoires, which is also highly erudite. Daboval and the Esquisses members have succeeded in creating their own signature sound with their very first performance, and all with breathtaking ease, something that other renowned choirs can take years to perfect. Just as we have in the past spoken about the ‘Voces8 timbre’, the ‘Tenebrae timbre’ and the ‘Deller Consort timbre’, here we are witnessing the birth of the ‘Esquisses timbre’. Qobuzissime! © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz
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A Lionel Tertis Celebration
Timothy Ridout
Classical - Released January 26, 2024 | harmonia mundi
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Violist Lionel Tertis and cellist Pablo Casals were both born on December 29, 1876. They were friends, and both did much to popularize and attract repertory to their respective instruments. It was a good day to be born, for both lived into their late nineties. Tertis is a familiar-enough figure among string players and aficionados of the early 20th century British scene, but he deserved the tribute that violist Timothy Ridout (who has already recorded Tertis' transcription of the Walton Cello Concerto for viola) offers here. Tertis is not well represented on recordings, so it is not really clear to what degree Ridout replicates his style. (Certainly, it does to some degree; Tertis' influence on British viola teaching was and remains deep.) Yet the program represents his activities in an engaging way. Although Arnold Bax wrote a good deal of music for Tertis, there is nothing by him here; perhaps another album is on the way, but there is a good deal of music that is not widely available elsewhere, certainly not in one place. There are attractive miniatures by Tertis himself, a variety of transcriptions he made of well-known pieces, and a genuine oddity, an obbligato part for the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. There are three more substantial works, the Viola Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 18 by York Bowen; the viola version of Vaughan Williams' Six Studies in English Folk Song; and the Viola Sonata of Rebecca Clarke. The last two were not written for Tertis, but Clarke was a fine violist herself, and nothing seems out of place. The Clarke work, skillfully exploiting the viola's lower reaches, is especially nicely done. A must for violists, this is of interest to any lover of 20th century English music, and it made classical best-seller charts in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Vaughan Williams, Elgar: The Lark Ascending...
Pinchas Zukerman
Classical - Released February 26, 2016 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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4 étoiles Classica
Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending is so familiar these days, especially in Britain, that it's easy to forget how recent its popularity really is. Pinchas Zukerman, when he recorded the work at the urging of Daniel Barenboim in 1973 (if one is to believe the entertaining booklet notes), had to ask, "What's a lark?" (Barenboim's response: "It's a bird.") That 1973 recording helped launch the bird onto the high trajectory it has followed ever since, and Zukerman is still hard to beat even with all the other recordings on the market. He has a relaxed, pastoral, flowing conception of the work, and he executes it with entrancing beauty. On top of this you will find other attractions in this 2016 Decca release. There's the presence of Zukerman as conductor in addition to his violin and viola roles, and The Lark Ascending, especially, has an organic sweep that's very rare. He elicits rich string sound from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Elgar Serenade for strings, Op. 20, and Introduction and Allegro for string quartet and string orchestra, Op. 47, and both these works get expansive, generously melodic performances. The sound, from London's Cadogan Hall, is excellent. And Zukerman emphasizes his direct connection with the music by including several of Elgar's short tunes, one of which, the arrangement of In Moonlight for viola and orchestra by Julian Milone, has never been recorded before. The sum total is a superb collection of English standards by a great musician who hasn't lost a step.© TiVo
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Elgar
Nicola Benedetti
Classical - Released May 15, 2020 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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This is a big outing for violinist Nicola Benedetti: the Elgar Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is a difficult work both technically and interpretively, and although it has been popular on recordings since the first one appeared in 1929, it is not exactly a crowd-pleaser; Benedetti scores here with a reading that steers a middle path between some well-established approaches. The Elgar concerto has an unusually wide range of interpretations of the tempo markings, with total timings clocking in at anywhere from 42 minutes (Jascha Heifetz) to 54 minutes (Nigel Kennedy, in one of the favored recordings of the last two decades of the 20th century). Benedetti comes in just shy of 47 minutes, and she catches the liquid speed of Heifetz while leaving room for the "awfully emotional, too emotional" quality Elgar himself described of the work. Her entrance in the first movement doesn't have quite the magnetic lyricism of Menuhin's, but her turns through the music's double stops and general veering quality generate quite a bit of momentum in both the first movement and the finale, interrupted quite effectively by a very free third-movement cadenza. For those wanting to hear Benedetti show what she can do in a more sentimental mood, the curtain is rung down by a trio of short violin-and-piano pieces, with Petr Limonov providing sensitive, quiet accompaniment. A fine Elgar concerto that can stand comparison with the other big ones on the market.© TiVo
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The Complete Warner Recordings 1972 -1980
Itzhak Perlman
Classical - Released September 25, 2015 | Warner Classics
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Néère (Hahn, Duparc, Chausson)
Véronique Gens
Mélodies (French) - Released October 16, 2015 | Alpha Classics
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The soprano Véronique Gens might be thought a natural for the French art song repertoire. But Néère, taking its title from the opening song by Reynaldo Hahn (the reference is to the Greek nymph known in English as Neaera, "white as a fine marble statue, with her rosy cheeks"), is one of just a few albums in the genre she has released. Get hold of it without delay: it's gorgeous. The French mélodie is not a high-register genre, and for a singer like Gens these songs reside in the lower part of her range, where she now brings just a bit of sultriness and smoke with devastating effect. The program includes three composers of the late 19th century who are closely related but contrasting in their individual styles: in the words of annotator Nicolas Southon "the melancholic Henri Duparc, the elegiac Ernest Chausson, the charmer Reynaldo Hahn." You could really dip in anywhere, but sample track 15, Hahn's A Chloris, for a taste of what Gens can do. The playing of accompanist Susan Manoff seems welded to Gens' vocal line, which even with all the voluptuous, erotic beauty has a kind of steely concentration that grows stronger and more impressive as the album proceeds. An absolute gem.© TiVo
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Faure: Pelléas et Mélisande
Lorraine Hunt
Classical - Released January 1, 1987 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Bacchanale: Saint-Saëns et la Méditerranée
Orchestre Divertimento
Classical - Released March 24, 2023 | harmonia mundi
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The Orchestre Divertimento and its conductor, Zahia Ziouani, often juxtapose European repertory with music from other parts of the world. Ziouani, who is of Algerian background, has a particular interest in the music of that country. She could not have found a composer whose works were more congenial to such a project than Camille Saint-Saëns, who visited Algeria no fewer than 18 times and composed a Suite algérienne, Op. 60, that is heard here, broken up and interspersed with Arabic music. What makes Ziouani's project unique is that there are not two types of music here but three. Many of the Saint-Saëns works are preceded by improvisations in the classical Arabic idiom, on oud, qanun, a traditional viol, derbouka, and the riqq drum. These are quite a musical distance from Saint-Saëns, but Ziouani introduces contemporary Arabic songs, of a semi-popular nature, as an intermediate step. The sets are mostly in related tonalities. This is an ingenious idea that sheds light on both Saint-Saëns, on what he heard when he heard Algerian music, and on the nature of contemporary popular traditions that are rooted in the classical music of the world. The Saint-Saëns performances themselves are entirely creditable, and the album is well recorded at a couple of different locations. A unique release that makes one want to hear more from this distinctive ensemble.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Entrez dans la danse... (Hahn, Ravel, Poulenc, Schmitt...)
Anne Queffélec
Solo Piano - Released January 13, 2017 | Mirare
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5 de Diapason
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Nuits
Véronique Gens
Classical - Released April 3, 2020 | Alpha Classics
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As the symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French mélodie became the jewel of the salons of the ‘Belle Époque’. By placing a string quartet and a piano around the singer, Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, Lekeu’s Nocturne and Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson oscillate between chamber musical intimacy and orchestral ambition. Alongside these famous pioneering pieces, this programme devised by the Palazzetto Bru Zane champions a return to the art of transcription, so popular in the nineteenth century, with the aim of expanding the repertory for voice, strings and piano in order to unearth some forgotten treasures. Hence Hahn, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, La Tombelle, Ropartz, Louiguy and Messager all appear in a programme whose guiding thread is the emotions of nocturnal abandonment: the charms of twilight, the trajectory of dreams, the terror of nightmare or the exhilaration of festive occasions. Alexandre Dratwicki has made these arrangements in the style of the nineteenth century. Appropriately enough, the programme ends with La Vie en rose, for this music offers a kaleidoscope of all the colours of human feeling. The texture of solo strings and piano sets Véronique Gens’s incomparable storytelling artistry in a new ligh. © Alpha Classics
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Mélodies: "L'heure exquise"
Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released October 4, 2005 | naïve classique
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Sarasate
Julia Fischer
Classical - Released January 1, 2013 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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5 de Diapason
On this 2013 Decca release, critically acclaimed violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Milana Chernyavska present a delightful recital of showpieces by Spanish virtuoso, Pablo de Sarasate. The music's fireworks give the program a strong appeal, and Fischer's technical brilliance is well-matched to all of Sarasate's demands, though her expressive intensity and soulful lyricism consistently carry the album. She pulls off all manner of flashy effects, including glissando harmonics, flageolets, pizzicati on the fingerboard, extended passages of sixths and octaves, flying spiccato bowing, and everything else in the violinist's bag of tricks, and there is never a missed opportunity for showmanship. Yet Fischer is most convincing when she has long, songlike melodies to spin out, and her control of line is always impressive, even when the melody is widely dispersed across the strings. Since the piano part is comparatively simple, often consisting of chords in a steady rhythm, Charnyavska has nothing particularly showy to play, but her support for Fischer's performance is constant and steady, and her sympathetic accompaniment is well-timed and subtle. Decca's reproduction is focused and clear, and the most dazzling passagework sparkles in the resonant recording space. Highly recommended.© TiVo
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Tchaikovsky : The Complete Solo Piano Works
Valentina Lisitsa
Classical - Released March 15, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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5 de Diapason
Whatever one thinks of her playing, it's clear pianist Valentina Lisitsa deserves everyone's thanks for showing that there is nothing wrong with the state of classical music, only with the way it is presented: views of her YouTube performance videos number in the tens of millions. Lisitsa has been able to parlay that popularity into a more conventional career, but for a pianist who has built her reputation on internet moments to essay something like the complete solo piano works of Tchaikovsky, covering ten CDs (about 11 hours of music in total) is unorthodox, or gutsy perhaps. As it happens, Lisitsa will probably find buyers. She records every scrap of music Tchaikovsky ever wrote for the piano, including an unfinished student work, a set of 50 folk song arrangements for piano four hands (recorded with Lisitsa's personal and artistic partner Alexei Kuznetsoff), an operatic potpourri, juvenilia, and a huge assortment of occasional short pieces. These are, as annotator Philip Ross Bullock concedes, of varying quality, but there is something catchy about them more often than not. Sample, for instance, the Volunteer Fleet March, from the "Works Without Opus Numbers" disc (the album is organized thematically rather than chronologically, which makes sense). Lisitsa in the main keeps to the rather restrained style she cultivated on YouTube. You might find that a Pletnev would offer more flair and oomph in the Grand Sonata, Op. 37, and her tempi in a piece like the "June: Barcarole" can be uncomfortably slow. However, one must note that Lisitsa has learned a great deal of music, recorded almost all of it at least intelligently, and cast a valuable light on a neglected segment of Tchaikovsky's output.© TiVo
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Compositrices à l'aube du XXe siècle
Juliette Hurel
Classical - Released January 17, 2020 | Alpha Classics
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Grétry: Raoul Barbe-Bleue
Orkester Nord
Opera - Released November 8, 2019 | Aparté
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This performance of Raoul Barbe-Bleue (‘Raoul Bluebeard’) from the 16th-17th November 2018 at Selbu Church (Norway) follows a number of performances at the Trøndelag Theatre as part of the Barokkfest Early Music Festival in Trondheim, in coproduction with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. The comic opera was written on 2nd March 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution and is a parody of two tales. André Grétry and his librettist Michel-Jean Sedaine were inspired both by Perrault’s story of Bluebeard and by the legend of The Lady of Fayel, which may not be as well-known nowadays but was very much in fashion in the 18th century and is itself a fusion of two tales. Sedaine deftly ensured that the opera included the first names of the various main characters to indicate that it is indeed a comedy and not a tragedy. Wagner even recalled in his memoirs how he had seen the opera performed in Dresden at the age of five and had been fascinated ever since. Now, re-enacted for the first time since 1789 in a Franco-Norweigan stage version conducted by Martin Wåhlberg, this version of Raoul Barbe-Bleue is guaranteed to make you laugh with its hybridised style that somewhat confused the 18th century audience. It’s a challenge but a wonderful opportunity to experience this work, produced primarily for the stage, without actually seeing the performers here – just by creating an inner theatre in your mind. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Live From The Club Album Yellow Lounge
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Classical - Released August 28, 2015 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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The vogue for performing classical music in nightclubs has seemed to recede in its original homeland, the U.S., but not so in Europe, with the icily perfect Anne-Sophie Mutter as the somewhat unlikely representative of the trend. Mutter, who was apparently inspired to try this by her 20-something children, shows why she's one of the world's greats, adapting to the demands of the medium, and by all appearances having a lot of fun. Mutter and a handpicked group called Mutter's Virtuosi, featuring the superb Mahan Esfahani on harpsichord, essentially offer a program of familiar late Romantic tunes that might have been heard in the nightclub's nearest analogue of a century ago, the Viennese café, spicing it up with syncopated material (Gershwin and the Jamaican Rumba) on one hand, and Vivaldi and Bach on the other. Mutter pushes herself into tempo extremes she might not ordinarily try, and she gets a big cheer from the crowd with a couple of movements of the Vivaldi Four Seasons and, more unexpectedly, two Bach concerto movements. The whole thing has a loose, enthusiastic feel with the flavor of Mutter showing the youngsters what she can do, and it may be that she's hit on a more promising direction for such releases than her much younger American counterparts. Recommended and fun.© TiVo
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Porque existe otro querer
Marina Viotti
Mélodies - Released April 14, 2023 | Aparté
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This program of love songs from mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti and guitarist Gabriel Bianco boils down a variety of music to the combination of voice and guitar, with most of the songs arranged by Bianco himself. To perform the likes of Fauré on a guitar is unusual, but it works in this context, where the performers draw entirely unexpected connections between French music, Latin American popular song, and more. It is a bold program, and it is gorgeous. Viotti's voice is a magnificent instrument, warm and rounded but with a haze that hints at many experiences in the world. Her experience extends from opera to metal; she is neither French nor Spanish nor Latin American, but it would be hard to find a singer more suited to this project. Bianco's guitar is an agile thing, capable of hanging back or jumping into the dialogue. The words "Porque existe otro querer" ("because another love exists") come from a Cuban popular song of 1945, Dos Gardenias, that was composed by Isolina Carrillo and also recorded by Buena Vista Social Club, Daniel Santos, and others. One could start by sampling that, or one of the Siete canciones populares españolas of Falla, the original locus point for the grand fusion the performers are seeking. The players conclude with the zippy La danza of Rossini and a German song by Pauline Viardot that somewhat breaks the romantic mood, but by that time, it hardly matters; the listener will be totally satisfied. Aparte delivers excellent studio sound that captures all the many shades on display.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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