Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
Et vogue la galère
Chansons Gaillardes [11:41]
Banalités [10:29]
Le Bestiaire [4:57]
Quatre poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire [4:59]
Calligrammes [11:44]
Rosemonde [2:16]
Le Grenoullière [1:54]
Priez pour paix [2:28]
Le disparu [1:53]
A Fraïcheur et le feu [8:30]
Le Travail du Peintre [12:24]
Matthias Veit (baritone, piano)
rec. 2018, Klangscheune, Lottstetten-Näck, Germany
TYXART TXA19143 [73:25]
Since Poulenc’s songs are often redolent of the salon style, there is some logic in presenting them with the singer accompanying himself on the piano, even if the richness of Poulenc’s piano writing transcends the usual notion of an accompaniment. There are plenty of pros and cons for performing them this way, although as an audio recording, one has no way of knowing whether what we hear here is simply the singer at the piano singing into the microphone, or something a little more studio manicured. Taking the idea of singer at piano at face value, the excellent recorded sound is surprisingly well balanced, while nuances in the piano playing would seem to hint at a pianist concentrating 100% on the piano part. However, there is an undeniably unified interpretative approach and stylistic congruity between piano and voice which would be hard to match otherwise. Of course, none of this really matters – it is a fool who assumes that what is presented on a record is a true statement of a live, one-off performance – and the important thing is to assess this new release in terms of how well it conveys the textural detail of Poulenc’s writing, how convincingly it portrays an implied understanding of the composer’s artistic intentions, and how it stacks up against other recordings of the same repertory.
As far as the first of these is concerned, there is no question; these are faithful and accurate performances which meet the demands of the music with a self-assurance and technical facility which is hard to fault. For those unacquainted with the extensive musical talents of Matthias Veit, he is certainly a highly capable and sensitive pianist, while his voice is full of character and colour, even if for those of us of a certain vintage, it recalls rather too vividly the later days of Peter Pears in quality, if not in range. However, possibly because he is thinking as much about the piano as about the voice, there is a certain tautness, perhaps unease, in his voice which reveals itself in occasional hesitancy and a feeling of holding back. Short and pithy as these songs are (for the most part, the song cycles comprise songs few of which exceed the two minute mark), they are certainly extraordinarily extrovert, and often it feels as if Veit is holding back on the big gestures.
So, while the songs are accurately performed and go a long way to interpreting the music convincingly, they do not have quite the same authority and conviction as those singers who have e recorded them along with an equally Poulenc-infused pianist. It’s almost 20 years since Michel Piquemal and pianist Christine Lajarrige recorded a similar programme of Poulenc Mélodies for Naxos (8.553643), and while they had the advantage of being native French speakers (which is not to say that Veit’s French diction is utterly idiomatic), what makes this recording still stand out from the crowd is the sense in which both of them are so thoroughly attuned to the mélodie idiom and the somewhat naïve character of Poulenc’s songs. Interpretatively, therefore, Veit is eclipsed by Piquemal and Lajarrige, but as a recording with vivid, fresh and superbly clear sound, Chromart-Classics unquestionably have come up trumps.
Marc Rochester
