Suzie LeBlanc: Tout Passe - Chants d'Acadie

Betsy MacMillan, Shawn Mativetsky, David McGuinness, Sylvain Bergeron, Suzie Leblanc, Chris Norman, David Greenberg

Released on 1/1/07 by ATMA Classique
Main artist: Suzie Leblanc
Genre: Classical

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It's hard not to fall in love with the voice of soprano Suzie LeBlanc; its sound is so bright and clear, her execution of flourishes and ornaments so natural and un-forced. Beyond purely technical concerns, however, the emotional warmth of LeBlanc's singing has the property of flooding the heart of a listener with a feeling of glowing relaxation, and among classically trained singers, there are few who have, or even seem to want, such capability. LeBlanc is able to make transitions between the worlds of classical and popular music with relative ease, but when it comes to popular music she is quite careful about what she sings -- no pithy attempts at Cole Porter standards or bleeding chunks of Andrew Lloyd Webber for her. LeBlanc's Tout passe (Everything Passes On) is her second foray into the folk music of her native Acadia, and for it, she has consulted sources ranging from the expert work of authority Georges Arsenault to a notebook kept by her singer-mother that LeBlanc rescued from a flooded basement. For purposes of accompaniment, she has put together a first-class group of traditional musicians and early music specialists that include Chris Norman, once of the Baltimore Consort, and Sylvain Bergeron and Betsy MacMillan of La Nef. The sound of this group is very full, lively, and rather striking -- the pieces featuring the instrumental group alone are easily as exciting as the best of the vocal items, and the group has none of the NPR-friendly cheekiness about it that we might associate with, say, the Baltimore Consort. The arrangements are sensitively handled and fashioned as much to provide a sense of mood as to support LeBlanc, who is in top form throughout.
Texts are given in French and English and reproduced over a photograph of rocks from the shore of presumably Newfoundland, an interesting design concept, but one that makes the texts, presented in tiny print, particularly hard to read. Chances are many listeners will not even concern themselves with the texts, as LeBlanc's singing is so charismatic and the backing so engrossingly musical that what she's singing about may not seem to matter much in experiencing this recording. LeBlanc describes her process in compiling the program of Tout passe as that of a journey, and while the result of her adventure does inform us something about Acadian people and culture, for the listener the journey is a series of captivating moods and experiences that transcend language and culture. Tout passé is much more than a crossover effort that listeners needn't feel guilty about liking; it is an artistic achievement of the highest order and a proud expression of patriotism for the Acadian people, who do not live in a distinct country and did not settle in the ones they are in by choice. Tout passe may not sell as many copies as one of Celine Dion's albums, but it deserves to, and chances are if you opt to join LeBlanc's adventure, you'll find in her work here a far greater reward than you expected in this sublime effort.

© TiVo

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Suzie LeBlanc: Tout Passe - Chants d'Acadie

Suzie Leblanc

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