Charles Koechlin - Songs (Claudette Leblanc; Boaz Sharon)

Information

Composer: Charles Koechlin

• (01) Si tu le veux, Op. 5 No. 5
• (02) Sept chansons pour Gladys, Op. 151
• (09) Le cortège d'Amphitrite, Op. 31 No. 2
• (10) Amphise et Melitta, Op. 31 No. 6
• (11) Déclin d'amour, Op. 13 No. 1
• (12) Aux temps des fées, Op. 7 No. 4
• (13) Le repas préparé, Op. 31 No. 5
• (14) La chanson des Ingénues, Op. 22 No. 1
• (15) Améthyste, Op. 35 No. 2
• (16) Hymne à Vénus, Op. 68 No. 1
• (17) L'Hiver, Op. 8 No. 2
• (18) La Nuit, Op. 1 No. 2
• (19) L'Été, Op. 1 No. 5
• (20) L'Air, Op. 8 No. 5
• (21) La Lune, Op. 8 No. 4
• (22) Le Printemps, Op. 1 No. 4
• (23) Le Thé, Op. 1 No. 3

Claudette Leblanc, soprano
Boaz Sharon, piano

Date: 1985
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55163

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Review

Koechlin's obsession with the stars of the silent screen, especially with the English actress Lilian Harvey, drew from him a vast amount of music but nothing odder than the Chansons pour Gladys (Gladys was the character Harvey portrayed in the film Calais-Douvres; the name may make us smile, but it sounds rather poetically classical in French). The fourth song of the cycle of seven is quite characteristic. In his text Koechlin gravely enshrines Harvey in classical imagery by using renaissance French archaisms, a misquoted line from Catullus (in Latin), even the English word 'lovely' (in the evident belief that it rhymes with 'Botticelli'). His setting of these words is delightful: raptly and contemplatively modal, but with just a hint (not always present in Koechlin's hymns to Harvey) that he realizes just how absurd he is being. Throughout the cycle the vocal lines are chastely incantatory, the bareness of their piano accomaniments sometimes hiding curious harmonic audacities; there is not much variety to them, but Koechling's mystical recognition of Harvey as Venus Anadyomene born again is genuinely visionary.

The seven Rondels prove, if proof were needed, that Koechlin was not so naive as the texts of the Chansons pour Gladys make him appear. They are in a lighter vein, almost a more 'popular' one (the sixth is an elegant spring song, with a nod towards Schumann, the seventh an enchantingly epigrammatic sketch of a pretty girl drinking tea, while in the third... goodness, is Koechlin really quoting from The Mikado?). Each of them would earn its place in any recital of French song; their neglect is inexplicable.

Between the poised purity of the one cycle and the charm of the other come a number of songs whose interest lies mainly in the quiet boldness of their harmony. Their vocal lines tend to deliquescence (like Faure left out in the rain), no doubt in response to the rather damp imagery of the texts Koechlin chose (''The sky was softer than the throat of a turtle-dove... Dreamingly, a frail nymph with long tresses wove pallid flowers about an amulet...''). But the two cycles are well worth getting to know: Claudette Leblanc sings them with purity and precision, though their range is sometimes wider than her voice can comfortably accommodate. Swallowed syllables at difficult moments aside, her diction is good, and her pianist is excellent; so is the recording.

-- Michael Oliver, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Mar10/Koechlin_songs_CDH55163.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Koechlin-Cortege-dAmphitrite-Claudette-Leblanc/dp/B0034JV6IE

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Charles Koechlin (27 November 1867 – 31 December 1950) was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. Koechlin was enormously prolific. He was highly eclectic in inspiration and musical technique, and his music was distinct from his contemporaries. He was a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars (especially Lilian Harvey and Ginger Rogers), traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism. Despite his lack of worldly success, Koechlin was apparently a loved and venerated figure in French music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin

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