Chansons Francaises 2020

Ivor Bolton has been principal conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since the beginning of the 2016 / 17 season and has always had a special affinity with British music. The present album with rather unknown music by Benjamin Britten was therefore a very special concern for him from the beginning. The program consists of the early cycle Our Hunting Fathers (with the tenor Mark Padmore), the Quatre Chansons francaises (a stroke of genius by the only 14-year-old) and the suite from the unfortunately rarely performed opera Gloriana, which, by the way, was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ivor Bolton has been principal conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since the beginning of the 2016 / 17 season and has always had a special affinity with British music. The present album with rather unknown music by Benjamin Britten was therefore a very special concern for him from the beginning. The program consists of the early cycle Our Hunting Fathers (with the tenor Mark Padmore), the Quatre Chansons francaises (a stroke of genius by the only 14-year-old) and the suite from the unfortunately rarely performed opera Gloriana, which, by the way, was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Wagram Music Presents Chante France présente : les plus belles chansons françaises album original hits and the original artists genre chansons françaises.

Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher once again prove to be the ideal interpreters of this multi-faceted music: from the smoky nightclub of the "Rue Chagrin", past the synagogue, left at the children's playground and over the cotton fields of America with hints of the blues - this is great art in a small form. In their touching simplicity, some of Germaine Tailleferre's pieces are reminiscent of nursery rhymes.

Fernando Lopes-Graça, one of Portugal’s most prolific and innovative 20th-century composers, was steeped in the folk songs of various provenances. In this third instalment (the earlier volumes are on 8.579039 and 8.579082) Lopes-Graça sets some of the greatest of all Portuguese poets. His exploration of harmonic complexity and progressive writing is distantly rooted in Debussy and laced with other subtle French elements. Premiere recordings of the kaleidoscopic Old English and French songs, which run the gamut of emotions, are among his earliest settings of foreign folk songs.

Following successful appearances at the Opéra-comique, in Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Oper Frankfurt, Komische Oper Berlin, and Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, the Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen joins the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner for a interesting album of orchestral songs, coupling Britten’s Les Illuminations and Four French Songs with a selection of Canteloube’s inimitable Chants d'Auvergne. Eriksmoen spent a year studying in Paris, and proves an effective and natural singer in the French language. As she mentions in her programme note: "It is highly demanding to sing in French when it is not one’s native tongue, but I have always felt at home when singing in French and nurture an emotional attachment to the French language".

Clair Obscur (Alpha 727), dedicated to German lieder with orchestra, explored the antagonism between light and shadow. Reflet conjures up the nuances and transparencies of French melodies. There is in reflection the idea of an echo, the shadow of a disquieting double, of a plural, diffracted sparkle… A clash of deceptive mirages, a kaleidoscope of senses and flashes of light, it interweaves in strange parallels the score of our lives, adorned with gold and illusions", writes Sandrine Piau. Berlioz, Gauthier, Britten, Hugo, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Duparc, Koechlin, Ravel, Mallarmé… the encounters between these composers and poets "create in me a firework display of colours and shimmers", concludes the French soprano, who is making her 14th recording for Alpha Classics.

VOICES sees Soprano Siobhan Stagg and pianist Nico de Villiers present the first album ever to be dedicated solely to the songs of Richard Hageman. This album assembles more than two dozen of Hageman’s songs, the majority of which are world premier recordings.Although Hageman was feted as a film composer in the latter part of his career, he started out as a song composer in the mid-1910’s.

„L’Enchanteur“ ist eine mitreißende Hommage an den Atem, den Klang und das musikalische Erbe. Alice Szymanski haucht einem Instrument des französischen Flötenbauers Louis Lot von 1867, die einst der große Gaston Blanquart spielte, neues Leben ein. Mélanie Bracale spielt einen Bechstein-Flügel aus dem Jahr 1900. Die herausragende Mezzosopranistin Lucile Richardot und die renommierte Cellistin Marie Ythier ergänzen das Ensemble. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Eleganz des französischen Repertoires und die Farben des frühen Impressionismus. Werke von Fauré, Roussel, Debussy und Ravel werden mit bewegenden, teils bisher unveröffentlichten Stücken verwoben.

Édith Piaf, de son vrai nom Édith Giovanna Gassion, est née à Paris le 19 décembre 1915 et morte à Grasse le 10 octobre 1963 (bien qu’une rocambolesque aventure fasse que sa mort soit post-datée le lendemain à Paris, où des amis ont transporté son corps). Artiste de music-hall et de variété, elle demeure l’une des plus grandes interprètes francophone du XXe siècle et l’une des plus célèbres chanteuses françaises dans le monde. La voix de Piaf est immortelle : on ne compte plus les reprises de La Vie en rose, qui figurent depuis plusieurs décennies parmi les dix chansons françaises qui génèrent le plus de droits d’auteurs à l’international. Son répertoire est régulièrement repris, Céline Dion, Patricia Kaas, Etienne Daho, etc. On a fredonné du Piaf jusque dans la version australienne de The Voice…