Claude Debussy - Mélodies (Sophie Karthäuser; Stéphane Degout)

Information

Composer: Claude Debussy

CD1:

• (01) Nuit d'étoiles
• (02) Trois Mélodies
• (05) Mandoline, L. 29
• (06) Fêtes galantes
• (12) Images oubliées, suite: 2. Sarabande
• (13) Chansons de Bilitis
• (16) Trois Chansons de France
• (19) Trois Ballades de François Villon

CD2:

• (01) Romance, L'âme évaporée
• (02) Les Cloches
• (03) Les Angélus
• (04) Dans le jardin
• (05) Images oubliées, suite: 1. Lent
• (06) Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
• (09) Beau Soir
• (10) Romance, Voici que le printemps
• (11) Paysage sentimental
• (12) Images oubliées, suite: 3. Quelques aspects de "Nous n'irons plus au bois"
• (13) Fleurs des blés
• (14) La Belle au bois dormant
• (15) Le Promenoir des deux amants
• (18) Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon
• (19) Cinq Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire

Sophie Karthäuser, soprano
Stéphane Degout, baritone
Eugene Asti, piano
Alain Planès, piano

Date: 2018
Label: harmonia mundi
http://www.harmoniamundi.com/#!/albums/2435

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Review

Harmonia Mundi has decided to mark the centenary of Debussy’s death this year not by issuing a bumper box of everything he ever composed but simply by inviting artists on its roster to record works they wanted to a record. This attempt to ‘exalt the father of modern music’ has led to an eclectic mix of discs – I particularly enjoyed Alexander Melnikov’s second book of Préludes and the two-piano transcription of La mer (8/18). This new two-disc addition to the series, under the title ‘Harmonie du soir’, is the only one to feature vocal music.

The Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser and French baritone Stéphane Degout share a delicious recital, accompanied by Eugene Asti and Alain Planès respectively. There are songs inspired by two of Debussy’s lovers, Marie Vasnier and Emma Bardac, but this is also a programme which celebrates his love for the poetry of Paul Verlaine, Paul Borget, Stéphane Mallarmé and Charles Baudelaire. Several sets of songs are included, each taken by one singer alone. So of the two sets of Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes, Karthäuser takes the earlier set (in its revised form), including a rapturous ‘En sourdine’, Degout taking the later set, composed in 1904 after he fell head over heels in love with Emma Bardac.

Karthäuser’s dewy soprano is light and fresh and she floats lines in ‘Le tombeau des naïades’ with ease. ‘Beau soir’ is almost sung on a half-breath. Degout is a singer of pure class. He has recorded six of these songs before (a recital on Naïve, 4/11), since when his high baritone has darkened. It’s now a touch more oaken (he said farewell to Pelléas recently and undertook his first Verdi role – Rodrigue – this year in Lyon) but it’s still an elegant, polished instrument. ‘Soupir’, the first of the Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, is gorgeously sung, bathed in autumnal melancholy.

The only significant set of songs missing (but surely not forgotten!) are the Ariettes oubliées, although Alain Planès plays the three Images oubliées in brief piano solos which act as occasional instrumental palate cleansers. Planès – whose terrific Harmonia Mundi set of Debussy’s complete works for solo piano, many on period instruments, is a treasure of my collection – plays exquisitely, both here and when partnering Degout. Asti is no less wonderful, a winning light touch to his guitar-strumming in ‘Mandoline’, while his phrasing in ‘La flûte de Pan’ is especially limpid. Two blissful hours from four winning advocates for Debussy.

-- Mark Pullinger, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Nov/Debussy_melodies_HMM902306.htm
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/debussy-melodies-karthauser-degout-asti-planes/
https://www.allmusic.com/album/claude-debussy-harmonie-du-soir-m%C3%A9lodies-mw0003181864
https://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Harmonie-soir-m%C3%A9lodies-songs/dp/B07G794W99

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Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. His innovative harmonies and his use of non-traditional scales were influential to almost every major composer of the 20th century and also some modern music groups. Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy

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Sophie Karthäuser (born May 1974 in Malmedy) is a Belgian operatic soprano. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, studying with Greta de Reyghere and Thierry Migliorini, then continued her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Noelle Barker. She participated in some masterclasses and took private lessons, notably with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Karthäuser has performed internationally, especially in roles by Mozart such as Ilia in Idomeneo and Pamina in The Magic Flute. She is also a recitalist, performing and recording the complete songs by Mozart and lieder by Hugo Wolf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Karth%C3%A4user

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Stéphane Degout (born 9 June 1975 in Bourg-en-Bresse, is a contemporary French baritone. Trained at the lycée Saint-Exupéry in Lyon, the Conservatoire de Lyon in the class of Margreet Honig, then within the troupe of the Opéra national de Lyon, Degout began his career in the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute in 1998. Since then, he has been performing a varied repertoire at the Opéra national de Lyon, the Paris Opera, the Opéra-Comique, and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, among others. Degout works on the repertoire of "lied" and the French melodie with Ruben Lifschitz and performs regularly in recital.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Degout

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