This album is programmed around the French Melodie, which in the late romantic nineteenth-century found its way from the private homes of modest voices and piano accompaniments to the larger concert halls, with small-sized orchestral accompaniment. The theme is love, as depicted by known and lesser known poets and composers.
The program is cleverly divided into two parts – The first, “Souvenir”, includes known composers such as Saint-Saëns, Berlioz and Massenet but also Charles Bordes, Gabriel Pierné and Théodore Dubois. This mixture of big and neglected names can also be found in the poets that gave the melodies their texts – Victor Hugo and Paul Verlaine are presented next to Théophile Gautier and Henri De Régnier, among others.
Sandrine Piau, with her deep, often mellow voice, is perfectly suited for this repertoire. Her presentation is involving but never over ecstatic, even in the more tumultuous songs. She is accompanied by the period forces of Le Concert De La under their lieder player Loge Julien Chauvin. The orchestration of these melodies is modest, eschewing with loud brass and percussions, leaving only strings, woodwinds and harp, making the balance a stark contrast to opera arias. Their performances are delicate yet colorful, allowing Piau to sing naturally without being overwhelmed by large forces of a symphonic ensemble. The group also give short instrumental refreshments in-between melodies, delightfully played.
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Highlights are many, but from the first part of the program, Berlioz’s “Au Cimetière” from “Les Nuits D’été” (H 81, track 4) is wonderful, showing attentiveness to the sung text and making one wish to hear Piau sing this entire cycle. Another beautiful song comes with the next track, Massenet’s “Le Poète et Le fantôme”.
From the second part of the program, titled “Désir & Séduction”, after another song from Berlioz’s H 81, we get a mesmerizing performance of Saint-Saëns’ “Aimons-nous” (track 14), as well as another instrumental segment, the opening Grave from The “Symphonie Gothique” by Benjamin Godard, expertly played to chilling effect. The album closes with a bittersweet rendition of “Plaisir D’amour”, composed by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini to a lovely text by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian and orchestrated by Berlioz.
If there was an album that required qualitative written material is this one, and luckily the Alpha team did not disappoint. Along with illuminating program notes and texts with translations to the sung texts, this makes for highly enjoyable listening. Superb recording too, made at the Arsenal of the Cité musicale-Metz.
