Guy SACRE
Mélodies
Florence Katz
(mezzo-soprano) Jean-Francois Gardeil (baritone) Billy Eidl
(piano)
Timpani 1C1051
[68.53]
www.timpani-records.com
Little known, a welcome addition to Timpani's extensive collection of
Melodies Francaises, and to my ears and mind a major discovery, Guy
Sacre (b. 1948) composed 120 songs, carefully respecting the texts in
their every inflection in his exemplary vocal writing. His Melodies are
in the line of Ravel & Roussel, but also bring to mind sometimes the
perceptive catholicity of Britten in his choice of texts and rigorous working
out of his material. Sacre is a connoisseur of poetry and his choices
selected here include Claudel, Cocteau & Eluard, together with texts
by less familiar names such as Georges Schehadé and Léon-Paul
Fargue.
Phrases pour eventails (Claudel, 1978) - seven songs in six minutes
- are like Japanese fragments, each evoking a significant experience with
just a few words and musical phrases. Cocteau provides a series of cameos
from Vocabulaire and L'execution, a macabre, surrealist evocation
of a death by firing squad. Those of Louis Desnos (1983-85) have a more acerbic
tone.
His Schehadé settings (1976 & 1987) introduce the regular themes
of childhood and memory, the earlier set full of happiness, the later, with
more intense lyricism and daring harmonies, are tinged with the ache of regret
for childhood past, 'so much magic for nothing'. A more disturbing childhood
memory is treated in 'Black Heart', the adult recall of a mindless act of
violence long ago, engendering unresolved remorse. This is the powerful centre
of this joint recital, Fargue's prose text set as a narration, somewhat like
some of those in Pelleas & Melisande, and here vividly portrayed by J-F
Gardeil. Florence Katz is equally persuasive in her share of the programme
and the accompaniments by Billy Eidl are sympathetically balanced.
Timpani places all its emphasis on the works themselves; there are no artist
biographies. The chosen poems and their musical settings are analysed in
an admirable 6-page, close typed essay by Robert Bared, and nothing is spared
otherwise in the presentation with full texts and translations and photos
of the composer & his interpreters. Sacre's methods are lucid and not
at all esoteric and I recommend this CD warmly.
Others awaiting exploration in previous releases of this invaluable series
include intégrales of Chabrier, Duparc, Honegger, & Lili
Boulanger -
Peter Grahame Woolf
