Petibon

Marking 50 years since the death of French composer Francis Poulenc, star soprano Patricia Petibon is the soloist in new recordings of his most rapturously beautiful sacred works; “Gloria” and “Stabat Mater”. Conductor Paavo Järvi also makes his DG recording debut, conducting the Orchestre de Paris and their renowned choir.

French soprano Patricia Petibon is known for recordings with ambitious, original programs, spaced several years apart. This is one of her most ambitious, and one of her best, even if some might find it a bit outrageous. Petibon approaches the French art song of the late 19th and 20th centuries from the perspective of popular song, suggesting that the boundary is blurry (noncontroversial in itself), and adding a few songs by Léo Ferré, the vastly underrated older contemporary of Jacques Brel. Where things start to get wild is not with the inclusion of popular songs, or even with the heavy emphasis on the music-hall rhythms of songs going back as far as Gabriel Fauré.

Like olives, artichokes, and more essentially and problematically, anchovies, Patricia Petibon's voice is an acquired taste. She is a high coloratura (up to E-flat), her technique is formidable, capable of great floridity and very fine breath control, she sings mostly without vibrato, and the tone can be so diamond-brilliant that it can grate, although for darker dramatic moments she can moderate the shine.

Patricia Petibon, admired for her command of Baroque style, records her first album of Italian Baroque arias partnered by Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Saluted by the International Record Review for her "rare ability to inject into her performance vocal characterizations which…nullify the need to see these operatic characters in the flesh," Rosso frames Petibon's gift of transformation by purely vocal means. Petibon's keen interpretive intelligence and gleaming tone summon into vivid life a wealth of characters tangled up in the power plays of gods, kings, witches, and devils. Rosso mixes beloved Handel airs like "Lascia ch'io pianga" with newly discovered arias by his contemporaries and predecessors. Sartorio's "Quando voglio" and Porpora's floating "Morte amara" are potential hits.