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Maurice DELAGE (1879–1961)
Quatre poèmes hindous (1912/1913) [8:45]
Deux fables de La Fontaine (1931) [6:23]
Maktah (berceuse phoque) (Chant de la jongle 2) (1935)
[2:23]
Trois poèmes désenchantés (1957) [5:30]
Sept haï–kaïs (1925) [5:04] Maurice JAUBERT (1900–1940)
Saisir (1940) [12:47]
Trois sérénades (1928) [4:52]
Elpénor (1927) [2:40]
Chants sahariens, 5 poèmes touaregs (1924) [6:49] Ernest CHAUSSON (1855–1899)
Chanson perpétuelle, oip.37 (1898) [6:53]
Felicity
Lott (soprano), Jean–Claude Bouveresse (violin)
Kammerensemble de Paris/Armin Jordan
rec. 11–13 February and 19–21 December 1994, Radio–France.
DDD VIRGIN
CLASSICS 5221282 [60:02]
Maurice Delage’s
name has been kept before the public by one work – the Quatre
poèmes hindous and for years it was the
recording made by Janet Baker and the Melos Ensemble in
the 1960s
on Oiseau Lyre which not only introduced us to this composer
but kept his flag flying (still available on Decca
4751612 (part of a boxed set) or on a single disk Philips
4767091). It was a revelation to discover
this work and one wondered about his other music but apart
from the very occasional radio broadcast of the Sept haï–kais
I heard nothing until CDs started appearing containing
other works of his. Now there is a representative
amount of his music available for us to be able to see,
and hear, just what a fine and interesting composer Delage
is.
This performance
of the Quatre poèmes
hindous is full of sensuality, the rich melodic line
sounding lighter than in Baker’s recording for Lott is
a soprano and, of course, doesn’t have the rich mezzo sound.
But this makes for an interesting comparison and both versions
are equally valid for this is music which oozes a perfect
voice above all else and both singers have that.
Delage’s Sept
haï–kais is a big work, in the scale
of things, even though no song plays for longer than
60 seconds. These songs aren’t the hot house flowers
in the manner of the Quatre poèmes hindous being perfect miniatures
with everything inessential stripped away and only the
purest lines of music are left remaining.
The other three
Delage pieces are even smaller! The Deux fables de La
Fontaine have a charm and delicacy while Maktah (berceuse
phoque) – the second of three Chant de la jungle – returns
us to the mood of the Hundu Poems. In many respects the
late Trois poèmes
désenchantés may be the best of the lot! I’ve only ever
heard these with piano accompaniment but with ensemble
they are beautiful, if painful, outpourings. They’re richly
nostalgic songs, easy going yet vital at the same time.
All these pieces are absolutely beautiful and are well
worth getting to know, especially in such fine performances
as these.
It’s worth
noting that Delage was a singular master of the song cycle
with small ensemble and he studied with Ravel – indeed,
was Ravel’s only pupil – and I often wonder if it was he
who influenced Ravel in his Trois poèmes
de Stephane Mallarmé (1913) and Chanson madécasses (1925/1926)
(both of which were also on Janet Baker’s Oiseau Lyre LP).
Maurice Jaubert
is a name which will be familiar to lovers of French cinema
of the 1930s for he was one of the leading composers of
music for film, working with René Clair, Marcel Carné and Julien
Duvivier, amongst others, and his spare orchestral scores
provided a contrast with the opulent scores then being
written in Hollywood. He was killed in combat just before
the French surrender in 1940. Filmmakers have never forgotten
his work and as recently as 1995 his music was used in
an episode of the TV series Un siècle d'écrivains.
Like the Delage
pieces, Jaubert’s songs are short and to the point but
they inhabit a totally different sound world and are more
varied and emotional. The five songs which make up Saisir contain
many different moods and colours. The second song, for
instance, is a wild and fast scherzo which is followed
by a static setting celebrating your large eyes, and the
fourth is a jaunty, trotting cart of a thing. A fascinating
variety of pieces indeed. Saisir was written shortly
before the composer’s death and perhaps there’s a certain
melancholy to them at times, but there’s certainly no sense
that the composer was worried about anything, such as being
in imminent danger of loosing his life, although the final
song has the feeling of a cortège about it.
The Trois
sérénades was written at the advent
of the talkies and thus the birth of real music for film
and it was at this moment that Jaubert discovered the
cinema. These songs are back to the hot house variety
of composition, highly flavoured and colourful with a
brevity which is quite breathtaking when one realizes
what the composer has said in his music. Elpénor consists of two songs, the second
of which is a jaunty setting for a pilot! With the Chants
sahariens we’re back to the French obsession with
the east and Delage’s domain but here the music isn’t
richly exotic rather a rough–hewn grass roots level look
at orientalism.
These brief
excursions into the music of Delage and Jaubert show us
two important composers whose work has passed us by, but
there is, thankfully, more for us to investigate on other
disks.
It was a lovely
idea to complete this recital with Chausson’s Chanson
perpétuelle for it continues the theme of melancholy
with the story of a woman who has been abandoned. This
was Chausson’s last completed work for a few months later
he died in a freak accident when he lost control of his
bicycle, as he was riding on a downhill slope, and crashed
headlong into a wall and was killed instantly. Several
of his handful of works are well known to the public – such
as the Poème de l'amour et de la mer,
op.19 (1891/1892) and the Poème,
op.25 for violin and orchestra – and this is a marvellous
example, and reminder, of his art.
This is a fine,
interesting, and very enjoyable disk. Felicity Lott sings
with a purity of line which is gorgeous to listen to. singing
the music simply but yet with a wealth of emotion and expression.
She is ably accompanied by the Kammerensemble de Paris
under the discreet direction of Armin Jordan. The sound
is very clear and there’s a good balance between singer
and instrumentalists. The notes are not as full as I would
have liked, when you’re listening to music you don’t know
well, or have had little contact with, you do need some
help along the way, but they do give information, no matter
how brief, about the works and their creators. There’s
no text or translation of any of the settings but Lott’s
diction is good and if you know French then you’ll be able
to follow what is going on, if not, just sit back and enjoy
the sounds!
Bob Briggs
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