Charlotte Sohy (1887-1955)
Composer of the Belle Époque
rec. 2021/22, La Maison de l’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France; l’Opéra-Confluence d’Avignon
Sung texts with English translation enclosed
Reviewed as download from press preview
LA BOÎTE À PÉPITES BAP01.03 [3 CDs: 187]
The new record label La Boîte à Pépites, whose first issue this is, has as its mission to “breathe new life into unknown or at best barely known works by women” in a series of concept albums, each devoted to a single woman composer. The artistic director and founder, Héloïse Luzzati, describes the background in the foreword to the album and also the reason why Charlotte Sohy was chosen for the premiere album. It is worth noting that all the works here, bar one, are world premiere recordings
Supposing that I am not the only one in this world who hadn’t heard about the French composer Charlotte Sohy, I’ll sketch a thumbnail portrait of her. Her mother was an amateur singer, who very early noticed her daughter’s musicality and encouraged her and her brother André to play and act in popular comedies in a private theatre. Charlotte also attended music theory
classes at a very early age – one of her class-mates was Nadia Boulanger, who was born the same year (1887). She also began studying the organ and had lessons with Alexandre Guilmant and very soon her father installed a Cavaillé-Coll instrument in the family residence. When she grew up she attended the Schola Cantorum, a conservatoire founded by Vincent d’Indy, where she studied counterpoint with Albert Roussel and organ with Louis Vierne, who was organist at Norte-Dame de Paris. She also met Marcel Labey, conductor and composer and 12 years her senior. They immediately fell in love and married in 1909. They had a long and fruitful creative life until 1955 when Charlotte suddenly died. Her compositional output isn’t very large but of high quality. They had seven children and several grandchildren, one of which, grandson François-Henri Labey, has done a great job to “digitise all of his grandmother’s compositions, thus providing the scores without which the present set of CDs would have been impossible”, as Héloise Luzzati writes in the booklet, where he also contributes with his memories of Charlotte Sohy. The booklet includes analyses of all the works in French and English and is also lavishly illustrated. The album is divided in three parts: music with piano, music with string quartet and music for orchestra.
CD 1 contains some of her earliest works. The Fantasy, Op 3, was her very first piano composition, written in 1907 when she had just turned twenty. It is romantic, flowing, Schumannesque, or maybe Chopinesque and with glowing fortissimos. The whole composition breathes youthful enthusiasm and is an inviting calling-card for a young talent, still under tutelage from her teacher Mel Bonis;
on the manuscript there are annotations by her.
When she wrote her Opus 4, the song cycle Chants de la lande (Songs of the Moor) she had already met Marcel Labey and was engaged to him. He was well-versed in Breton culture and had assuredly mediated to his wife-to-be some of the legends and tales from his well-stocked library. Charlotte wrote the poems herself, and the settings are captivating. The opening song, Les Farfadets (The Sprites), has a very expressive accompaniment that at once makes the listener sit up and prick his ears. The second song, Mélancolie d’automne (Autumn Melancholy) is beautiful and gripping, while the accompaniment is more spartan. Anathème (Anathema) is dramatic and intense, almost operatic, and this reminds us that Charlotte Sohy also devoted herself to opera. Maybe a forthcoming album could give some samples. La Source is an ode to the fairy of the waters, and the rippling water in the accompaniment is impressionistically descriptive. This also goes for Le Barde. The final song¸ Feuille morte (Dead Leaf) is autumnally melancholic – and very beautiful.
The third composition from her youth, the Sonata Op 6, from 1909/1910 is, like the Fantasy Op 3, in F minor, which seems to have been a key of special importance to her. The first movement, Allegro, introduces a five note motif, which becomes an essential building block which is transformed in an uncommonly dramatic and virtuoso movement. As a contrast the second movement is soft and atmospheric, while the fast, Très vif, rondo-finale’s main theme is a Breton folk dance. The sonata as a whole is a brilliant work, which hopefully should get a foothold in the standard repertoire.
A big forward leap of twenty years takes us to Octobre, Op 23 No 1
for cello and piano – a somewhat melancholy piece that could be a fine encore
to a cello evening. Exquisitely played here by Héloïse Luzzati and Célia Oneto
Bensaid – but strangely enough it was premiered in 1932 by Paul Bazelaire and
his ensemble of 25 cellists (!) with Charlotte Sohy at the piano. Bazelaire,
by the way, was a composer in his own right, and a recording of his complete
oeuvre for cello and piano was reviewed here. He was also a teacher and Pierre Fournier was one of his pupils.
Quatre Pièces romantiques, Op 30 takes us even further forward, to the end of WW2 and a Paris where people were starving severely – something Charlotte described in the account of her life, which she wrote to her children. Hearing these four pieces without knowing the circumstances when they were written, one hears no fear, no desperation but rather an idyll. The running water in the first piece, a charming playful waltz in the second, a lovely lullaby in the third and an elaborated but very beautiful song without words in the fourth. This seems to be an escape from reality – understandable but a little weird.
The concluding work on the first disc, the Trio, Op 24, is contemporaneous with Octobre, and is regarded as a central composition in her chamber music oeuvre. I’m afraid I didn’t find it very memorable, but the fault is probably mine, and repeated listening may change my mind. The playing is, however, impeccable.
On CD 2 we are treated to Charlotte Sohy’s two string quartets, both mature works. No 1 was the next composition after the trio, composed in 1933, and No 2 a good decade later, after WW2. Quartet No 1 is the most substantial work in the whole collection with a playing time of close to 27 minutes. The first movement – or “Piece” as Charlotte Sohy wrote in the concert notes of the first performance in March 1934 – is titled Joyfulness, somewhat confusingly, since to me it opens very softly and nervously, slightly mysteriously and by and by it increases to agitated aggressiveness. The second, Serenity, is cool and relaxed, longing – then the cello introduces a stern and dramatic theme, but soon the music returns to the opening serenity – but also the same nervousness of the first movement. Nervously shivering is also the beginning of the third piece – the title is Flirtation – then a lighter section accompanied by pizzicato in the cello, but it ends with fidgeting feet! The finale, Willpower, is a well-organized fugue – but not without nerves. There is a slackening of intensity in the middle, but then the music gathers momentum, and it ends with a jubilant coda.
The second quartet is much shorter and in three movements. Composed in the aftermath of the war, it probably mirrors the mixed feelings Charlotte had when looking back at the hardship and desperation they had recently endured. The middle movement, Andante, is particularly agonizing and touching. But the third movement, a lively rondo, seems to be forward-looking and optimistic.
The Rustic Triptych, composed in 1925, during the roaring twenties when optimism reigned in Europe and the threatening shadows of the approaching Nazi era was still out of sight, is a basically idyllic work, interesting not least for the unusual combination of instruments: three strings, flute and harp.
Morning Enchantment is light and airy, With the Water’s Flow is a pastoral and Dance at Dusk is joyous and entertaining. This is a work to return to for enchantment, and it is also the only work in this collection that has been recorded previously.
CD 3 with orchestral music, begins with the early Three Nostalgic Songs, Op 7, composed after the sonata Op 6 in 1910. These are sad poems, by Cyprien Halgan, lawyer and friend of Charlotte’s father, and the annotator wonders why a newly married and happy 23-year-old woman would wish to set them at that time. The answer is probably that she did so to satisfy her father. Like the earlier songs Op 4, she reveals her dramatic talent, and they are excellently sung by mezzo-soprano Aude Extrémo. It doesn’t say so anywhere in the notes, but I wonder if Ernest Chausson wasn’t a model for her. Not least the third song, sous ce ciel d’hiver, points in that direction. The songs were dedicated to the great mezzo Claire Croiza, who premiered them in Salle Pleyel in Paris in March 1912 with a string quartet and Charlotte Sohy at the piano. The version for full orchestra, heard here, has never been performed in concert. I hope it soon will be.
Aude Extrémo also sings Two Sung Poems Op 17 from 1922. They were composed for mezzo-soprano (or baritone) and orchestra and were dedicated to the great baritone Charles Panzera, but it was mezzo Lina Falk who premiered them with Charlotte Sohy at the piano in 1927. The orchestral version has never been performed in concert. It is a great shame, since they are lovely songs. Incidentally, the poems by Camille Mauclair (1872-1945) have been set to music by several composers, including Nadia Boulanger, Ernest Chausson, Gustave Samazeuilh, Florent Schmitt, and Ernest Bloch. Listening to Theme and Variations
Op 15 bis from 1921, I again feel the influence of Chausson, not particularly the orchestral colours but the atmosphere of his famous Poème. The original was for violin and piano, but it was orchestrated by the composer some years later. The dedicatee was Charlotte’s childhood friend Nadia Boulanger. Cordelia Palm plays here with great feeling.
Histoire sentimentale, Op 34, Charlotte Sohy’s penultimate work, is surrounded by mystery. A staff book was found filled with fragments for piano of themes, and titles that clearly indicated that the material was intended for a film. A manuscript for an orchestral suite was also found and the themes derived from the piano sketches. It seems obvious that there were plans for a film that never came to fruition. Even more mysterious is that a recording was made at the time (early 1950s). The four short movements have enticing titles: I. Meeting on the Banks of the Stream - II. Flirting - III. Absence - IV. Forgetfulness and the music is attractive. The second movement is a cello solo and the third is very romantic, while the finale is the only up-tempo piece, and here the percussion section gets it due.
The concluding Meditations, Op 18 from 1922 are three settings of Charlotte Sohy’s own poems. The songs are lovely, and the singing of Marie Perbost is truly lovely. The songs were originally composed for soprano and piano and were premiered in January 1923 by Louise Matha with the composer at the piano. The orchestration heard here was made in 2019 by François-Henri Labey, her grandson.
The music on this set (is performed with obvious devotion, and it has been a privilege to listen to works long forgotten and find that they have a lot to say to listeners from later generations. I hope enough music lovers will lend an ear to this set and thus inspire Héloise Luzzati and her colleagues to continue digging in the archives for more revelations from the past.
Please note that the three discs are also available separately.
Göran Forsling
Contents
CD 1 Autour du Piano
Fantaisie, Op 3
Chants de la lande, Op 4
Sonate, Op 6
Octobre, Op 23 No 1
Quatre Pièces romantiques, Op 30
Trio, Op 24
CD 2 Autour du Quatuor
Premier Quatuor, Op 25
Deuxième Quatuor, Op 33
Triptyque champêtre, Op 21
CD 3 Autour de l’orchestre
Trois Chants nostalgiques, Op 7
Deux Poèmes chantés, Op 17
Thème varié, Op 15 bis
Histoire sentimentale, Op 34
Méditations, Op 18
Performers
CD 1: Marie-Laure Garnier (soprano), David Kadouch (piano), Héloïse Luzzati (cello), Nikola Nikolov (violin), Célia Oneto Bensaid (piano), Xavier Phillips (cello), Marie Vermeulin (piano)
CD 2: Quatuor Hermès, Mathilde Calderini (flute), Constance Luzzati (harp)
CD 3: Marie Perbost (soprano), Aude Extrémo (mezzo-soprano), Cordelia Palm (violin), Orchestre national Avignon-Provence/Debora Waldman
