Gabriel Fauré - Complete Songs (Elly Ameling; Gérard Souzay)

Information

Composer: Gabriel Fauré

• Complete Songs (4 CDs)

Elly Ameling, soprano
Gérard Souzay, baritone
Dalton Baldwin, piano

Recording: 1970-1974 (EMI)
Release: 2006 (Brilliant Classics)
https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/f/faur%C3%A9-m%C3%A9lodieslieder/

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Review

As with many blockbuster sets of discs, this intégrale of 105 songs (including one duet by the two artists and the two Op. 10 songs by Ameling duetting with herself) prompts the fundamental question of how records are expected to be used. To have Fauré's total output of melodies available is obviously a great boon for admirers of this refined, elegant and elusive composer and for students of the art of song-writing, but no one in his senses should try to listen to more than about half an hour of them at a stretch: they are too subtle and exquisitely wrought for their savour to be lost by wholesale consumption. There are also, let's face it, too many slow and reflective songs for many to be grouped together. So take this over-four-hour feast in very easy stages, stopping to observe Fauré's development over 60 years as well as to admire the artistry both of Ameling and Souzay and of their accomplished and sensitive pianist Baldwin.

The two singers had worked together fairly often (does anyone remember their Wolf Italienisches Liederbuch from the 1960s and 1970s? 8/72, nla), and in 1974, the fiftieth anniversary of Fauré's death, they performed his complete songs at the Aix-en-Provence Festival: the present recordings, however, antedate that event, six songs from Souzay having been made in 1970 and the rest in 1973 and early 1974 (all in Paris). Souzay was, of course, an acknowledged master of the style, though vocally not all his performances here are at the same level: there are signs of tiredness, thinning out of tone and even unsteadiness in places, though his La bonne chanson cycle is a model. The cool purity of Ameling's voice suits Fauré admirably, particularly delicious in songs like Les roses d'Ispahan or "C'est l'extase" (Cinq melodies de Venise) and on the whole she is better recorded than Souzay, who sometimes (as in Aprés un réve) come close to blasting. Taken as a whole, however, this is a very rewarding set for those who appreciate French song: it is a pity that, though texts are provided, there are no translations.

-- Gramophone [4/1992]
reviewing the original CD release of this set, EMI 64079

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Gabriel Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. His music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with 20th century modernism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9

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Elly Ameling (born 8 February 1933 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch soprano. She made her career mainly as a concert and lieder singer with some excursions into opera (Mozart, Haydn) and became world-renowned for her recitals of French and German songs and for her superlative interpretive gifts. She is equally at home in chamber music, orchestral music, operas, and oratorios. Contemporary works, particularly by her countrymen Bertus van Lier and Robert Heppener, are also part of her large repertoire. Ameling has recorded more than 150 albums and won many prizes. She retired in 1995.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elly_Ameling

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Gérard Souzay (8 December 1918 – 17 August 2004) was a French baritone, regarded as one of the very finest interpreters of mélodie (French art song). Souzay studied at the Paris Conservatoire, beginning as a tenor but later became a baritone. After WWII, he rapidly established an international career as a recitalist, admired not only in French music but also for his command of the German repertoire. Souzay's exceptional linguistic gifts enabled him to sing convincingly in 13 different languages including Hebrew, Portuguese and Russian. He recorded extensively for Decca, Philips and EMI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Souzay

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