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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Various Composers - Néère (Véronique Gens)


Information

Composer: Reynaldo Hahn; Henri Duparc; Ernest Chausson
  1. Hahn - Études latines: "Néère"
  2. Hahn - Trois jours de vendange
  3. Duparc - Chanson triste
  4. Duparc - Romance de Mignon
  5. Duparc - Phidylé
  6. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 1. Nanny
  7. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 2. Le charme
  8. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 3. Les papillons
  9. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 4. La dernière feuille
  10. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 5. Sérénade italienne
  11. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 6. Hébé
  12. Chausson - Sept mélodies, Op. 2: 7. Le colibri
  13. Hahn - Quand je fus pris au pavillon
  14. Hahn - Le rossignol des lilas
  15. Hahn - À Chloris
  16. Chausson - Deux poèmes, Op. 34: 1. La chanson bien douce
  17. Chausson - Le temps des lilas (from Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19)
  18. Hahn - Études latines: "Lydé"
  19. Hahn - Études latines: "Tyndaris"
  20. Duparc - Au pays ou se fait la guerre
  21. Duparc - L'invitation au voyage
  22. Hahn - Études latines: "Pholoé"
  23. Hahn - Études latines: "Phyllis"
  24. Hahn - Le printemps

Véronique Gens, soprano
Susan Manoff, piano

Date: 2015
Label: Alpha
https://outhere-music.com/fr/albums/neere-alpha-215

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Review

Véronique Gens’s new album is an important issue on several fronts. First and foremost, it is arguably the most perfectly realised recital of French songs since Stéphane Degout’s very different ‘Mélodies’ (Naïve, 4/11). Second, it is quite remarkable and insightful in its programming. At its centre is Chausson’s Op 2 set, dating from 1881, much excerpted (‘Le colibri’ is very famous), but recorded here complete for the first time since Graham Johnson’s survey of the composer’s songs (Hyperion, 5/01). Around it are grouped works by Duparc and Hahn, the latter represented not only by such familiar items as ‘A Chloris’ but by songs from his Etudes Latines, a mixed solo-choral collection setting texts by Leconte de Lisle, published in 1900. They are quite wonderfully original – their sinewy melodies and pulsing accompaniments are closer in style to Satie’s Gnossiennes than anything else in Hahn’s output – and the disc as a whole makes a superb case for considering his songs, sometimes thought dilettantish, as being on a level with those of his elder contemporaries.

Gens, as one might expect, is exceptional in this repertoire. Most of the songs are about erotic anticipation and tristesse, and her dark, slightly smoky tone adds to the sensuality of it all. She sings as much off the text as the line, but nothing is nudged or forced in an overtly interventionist way. Neither she nor her pianist Susan Manoff seemingly believe that French song is necessarily about restraint and delicacy, and both are prepared to use bold colours and effects when the situation demands. ‘Au pays où se fait la guerre’ delivers near-Gothic frissons as a lurch of vocal anxiety and a piano shudder accompany the sound of strange footfalls on the tower stairs, and the arpeggios with which Manoff surrounds the image of the fields coloured ‘d’hyacinthe et d’or’ in ‘L’invitation au voyage’ glitter and sparkle like the contents of some sumptuous, decadent jewel box. Elsewhere, poise is all. Gens’s ‘A Chloris’ is one of the best there is, and Hahn’s ‘Néère’, which gives the disc its title, leaves you open-mouthed with its beauty.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Apr/Neere_Gens_215.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/03/veronique-gens-review-wigmore-hall-london-takes-your-breath-away
https://www.allmusic.com/album/n%C3%A9%C3%A8re-duparc-hahn-chausson-mw0002890502
https://www.amazon.com/V%C3%A9ronique-Gens-N%C3%A9%C3%A8re-Reynaldo-Hahn/dp/B015NPGA8M

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Reynaldo Hahn (August 9, 1874 in Caracas, Venezuela – January 28, 1947 in Paris, France) was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic, diarist, theatre director, and salon singer. Hahn studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Jules Massenet, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns and Émile Decombes. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie. As a conductor Hahn specialised in Mozart. For many years he was one of the best critics on music and musicians and a influential music critic of the leading Paris daily, Le Figaro.

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Henri Duparc (21 January 1848 – 12 February 1933) was a French composer of the late Romantic period. Born in Paris, Duparc was one of César Franck's first composition pupils, studying piano. In 1871, he joined Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine to found the Société Nationale de Musique. Duparc is best known for his 17 mélodies ("art songs"), with texts by poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and Goethe. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as "neurasthenia", caused him abruptly to cease composing at age 37, and eventually led to total blindness. He destroyed most of his music, leaving fewer than 40 works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Duparc_(composer)

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Ernest Chausson (20 January 1855 – 10 June 1899) was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish. He studied with Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, and  also with César Franck, with whom he formed a close friendship. When only 44 years old, Chausson died of a freak bicycle accident and left behind only 39 opus-numbered pieces. Chausson's work is deeply individual. The quality and originality of his compositions are consistently high, and several of his works continue to make occasional appearances on programs of leading singers, chamber music ensembles and orchestras.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Chausson

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Véronique Gens (born 19 April 1966) is a French operatic soprano. Gens was born in Orléans, France, and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning first prize at the school. Her debut in 1986 was with William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants. She has since worked with Marc Minkowski, René Jacobs, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe, and Jean-Claude Malgoire. While she started out as a Baroque specialist, Gens has also come into demand for roles in Mozart operas, and as an interpreter of songs by Berlioz, Debussy, Fauré and others. Her recordings include many works by Mozart and Purcell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9ronique_Gens
https://www.veroniquegens.com/

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3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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