The Gramophone Choice

‘The Complete Songs – Vol 1, Au bord de l’eau’

Les matelots, Op 2 No 2. Seule!, Op 3 No 1. La chanson du pêcheur, Op 4 No 1. Barcarolle, Op 7 No 3. Au bord de l’eau, Op 8 No 1. Tarentelle, Op 10 No 2. Les berceaux, Op 23 No 1. Four Songs, Op 51 – No 1, Larmesg; No 2, Au cimetière. Cinq Mélodies de Venise. Pleurs d’or, Op 72. Three Songs, Op 85 – No 2, La fleur qui va l’eau; No 3, Accompagnement. Mirages, Op 113. C’est la paix!, Op 114. L’horizon chimérique, Op 118 

Felicity Lott, Geraldine McGreevy, Jennifer Smith sops Stella Doufexis mez John Mark Ainsley ten Stephen Varcoe, Christopher Maltman bars Graham Johnson pf 

Hyperion CDA67333 (69’ · DDD · T/t). Buy from Amazon

Few singers would give over a whole evening to Fauré’s songs on the concert platform, and choosing a way of presenting them on disc obviously poses problems. Previous sets had all the songs in chronological order; others chose poets or moods: Graham Johnson and company have begun with songs about water. This means a lot of dreaming and melancholy, whether in Gautier’s ‘Chanson du pêcheur’ (‘Ma belle amie est morte’, also set by Berlioz), or Richepin’s ‘Au cimitière’. The latter is given a most beautiful rendition by John Mark Ainsley, who otherwise only sings on two tracks, with Jennifer Smith in the sentimental ‘Pleurs d’or’, and the homage to Venice and its lovers in Marc Monnier’s ‘Barcarolle’. 

Three cycles are the main items here. Felicity Lott sings the Cinq Mélodies de Venise, which includes some of Fauré’s best-known songs, ‘Mandoline’, ‘En sourdine’ and ‘Green’. She brings to bear on them a lifetime’s devotion to French song. Her other contribution is ‘Au bord de l’eau’, to a poem by Sully-Prudhomme. This is made to sound very sad; taken faster it can be quite merry – it’s a celebration of love, as well as a meditation on the passing of time.

Stephen Varcoe sings Mirages, Fauré’s penultimate cycle (1919). As Graham Johnson writes in his fascinating notes, these poems by Brimont permitted Fauré ‘uneventful passion’. Christopher Maltman is the other featured singer, in five separate songs and L’horizon chimérique. All the performances are elegant and well-balanced, but one misses the extra slight note of acid that native French singers bring to Fauré’s songs.

Hyperion’s sound is impeccable and, in both his playing and accompanying essay, Graham Johnson penetrates to the heart of one of music’s most subtle and enigmatic geniuses. 

‘The Complete Songs – Vol 2, Un paysage choisi’

Mai, Op 1 No 2. Dans les ruines d’une abbaye, Op 2 No 1. Sérénade toscane, Op 3 No 2. Lydia, Op 4 No 2. Three Songs, Op 5 – No 1, Chant d’automne; No 3, L’Absent. Tristesse, Op 6 No 2. Après un rêve, Op 7 No 1. Puisqu’ici-bas, Op 10 No 1. Three Songs, Op 18 – No 2, Le voyageur; No 3, Automne. La fée aux chansons, Op 27 No 2. Noël, Op 43 No 1. Clair de lune, Op 46 No 2. Spleen, Op 51 No 3. Prison, Op 83 No 1. Dans la forêt de septembre, Op 85 No 1. Chanson, Op 94. Les jardins clos, Op 106. Il est né, le divin Enfant. En prière 

Felicity Lott, Geraldine McGreevy, Jennifer Smith sops Stella Doufexis mez John Mark Ainsley, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt tens Stephen Varcoe, Christopher Maltman bars Graham Johnson pf 

Hyperion CDA67334 (68’ · DDD · T/t). Buy from Amazon

Volume 2 of Hyperion’s superb Fauré song series takes its theme from ‘Clair de lune’ and an idealised landscape peopled with dreaming birds and sobbing fountains. It follows the composer from youth to old age, from the young charmer to the mature master to the inscrutable sage, imaginatively side-stepping all possible monotony. Fauré’s dream-world is a mirror of an occasionally innocent nature that received too many cruel knocks, reflected in music of light and darkness, courage and despair. All the singers involved in this ideally presented and recorded offering perform with a special ardour and commitment; Graham Johnson is, as always, a matchless partner and commentator.

Additional Recommendation

Quatre Mélodies, Op 51. Cinq Mélodies de Venise, Op 58. Deux Mélodies, Op 76. Deux Mélodies, Op 83. Trois Mélodies, Op 85. Deux Mélodies, Op 87. Chanson, Op 94. Le Don silencieux, Op 92. Shylock, Op 57 – No 1, Chanson; No 3, Madrigal 

Yann Beuron ten Billy Eidi pf

Timpani 1C1162 (53’ · DDD). Buy from Amazon

Here is music of a harmonic and rhythmic iridescence quickly shadowed by darker imaginings. The scope, too, is remarkable from a composer too frequently characterised as limited. ‘Larmes’ has a near-operatic declamation while ‘La rose’ is magically radiant. In the inimitable ‘Mandoline’ from the Cinq Mélodies de Venise a mischievous tripping charm ‘softens to paint the shimmering of silk jackets, blue shadows and the halo of a pink-grey moon’, a reminder that figures from the commedia dell’arte were central to Fauré’s fantasy. Such music requires special qualities from both singer and pianist, and while Yann Beuron and Billy Eidi hardly eclipse memories of Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin (Testament) or Hyperion’s glorious series, their ardour and commitment are unmistakable. At once sensitive and strong, they are true to a clearly beloved composer whether in the voluptuously beautiful ‘En sourdine’ or in the heartbreaking reflection of ‘Prison’. All lovers of a still misunderstood composer will want to add this well-recorded album to their collection.