Duparc

This CD presents the brief but remarkable output of songs by Duparc during his artistic period that was cut short by a nervous affliction. These works are beautifully performed by mezzo-soprano Sarah Walker and baritone Thomas Allen, with sensitive piano accompaniment by Roger Vignoles. The collection opens with Duparc's best known melody, L'invitation au voyage, which is a setting of a text from Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal. The lovely rolling impressionist piano harmonies are played with exquisite fluidity, as they underscore Walker's velvety and intimate vocals. The Sérénade florentine is an impressionist lullaby to a loved one, delivered with touching emotion by Thomas Allen. Extase, Elégie and Testament show the influence of Wagner, and the Chanson triste is one of Duparc's early, Gounod-style songs. Au pays oú se fait la guerre (1869) is also an early work, but is particularly entrancing with simple modal harmonies and easily perceived song construction. By sensitive use of passing tones in the piano, the harmonies are subtly redefined and the music is extended dramatically toward the end by expressive on-rushes.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers - Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas. An iconic figure in the world of French music - his songs described as being 'imperfect… but works of genius' by Ravel and 'perfect' by Debussy - Duparc only composed a handful of works during the first half of his life: following a nervous disorder in 1885 at age 37 he lived for a further 48 years, orchestrating and tinkering with his songs, but publishing nothing new. Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau is recognized at the highest international level as one of the UK's leading accompanists, performing worldwide alongside the world's greatest singers and with a discography of over 100 albums, including a number of award-winning recordings.

“Phenomenally good … Dreisig’s voice [is] youthful yet assured, agile yet fluid, and powerful through its entire range … We can certainly expect much more to come from this singer,” wrote BBC Music Magazine in its five-star review of Miroir(s), Elsa Dreisig’s debut album of operatic arias and scenes. It was subsequently nominated for two top awards, Gramophone and Opus Klassik.

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazıl Say share some tantalising, captivating and sensuous Secrets in this album of songs, centred on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazıl Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014. Describing the recording sessions, Marianne Crebassa says: “Sometimes we worked in a kind of trance … there were some moments when nothing seemed to exist around us …”

Since his debut recording on Linn Records of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique in 2012, and his subsequent releases of Les nuits d'été, La mort de Cléopâtre, L'enfance du Christ, and Roméo et Juliette, Robin Ticciati has demonstrated a strong affinity for the refined sonorities of French music, and his attention to vibrant orchestral colors and transparent textures is especially well-suited to accompanying the human voice. His 2017 album of works by Debussy and Fauré with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin reflected his strengths and sensitivity, so this 2018 release with the same artists, featuring works by Maurice Ravel and Henri Duparc, effectively recommends itself to knowledgeable listeners.

The bulk of Henri Duparc's oeuvre consists of 17 songs, the 16 recorded here plus one duet for soprano and tenor. He was a master of the late Romantic mélodie, and many of these songs are masterpieces of the genre. The recital by Canadian mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier is to some degree a successful account of the songs, but her performance isn't entirely consistent. She sings with passion and nuanced intelligence and brings real understanding to her interpretations. Her voice is full and secure through her range, even down to the depths of La vague et la cloche.

Soprano Soile Isokoski is singing orchestral songs by three different French composers in her new recording. The recording includes two major works in the French song repertoire Ernest Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer and Hector Berlioz's Nuits d'été. The disc ends with three finely-crafted miniature songs by Henri Duparc, which are no less of artistic value.

L'invitation au voyage is one of the most famous mélodies of all time, composed around 1870. It was Duparc’s special role in the history of French song to introduce a note of depth and seriousness into a genre that had been notably lacking such qualities during the Second Empire. The inspiration with this composer was Wagnerian (Duparc heard Rheingold in 1869) but his music distils Wagner’s visionary qualities into works of art of great concision and translucence. In this unquestionably French music there is no trace of the megalomania and pomposity that repelled Godard and other French anti-Wagnerians. Duparc embraced the Christian ideals typical of the César Franck circle as a whole; perhaps that is why the pagan resonances of Baudelaire’s ‘Luxe, calme et volupté’ are turned into music of unbelievable refinement—here is purity as well as decadence, rigour and sensuality. With Baudelaire and Duparc we traverse the landscapes of the Dutch East Indies; as in all such journeys, where imagination plays the largest part, we find ourselves flying beyond operatic sets of wood and canvas towards realms previously inaccessible to the French duo of singer and pianist.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers – Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas.