Marie-Nicole Lemieux: Mer(s)

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: (Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Victorin Joncières, Edward Elgar

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Erato

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 64

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 9029542433

9029542433. Marie-Nicole Lemieux: Mer(s)

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Sea Pictures Edward Elgar, Composer
Bordeaux National Opera Chorus
Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra
Edward Elgar, Composer
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Contralto
Paul Daniel, Conductor
Poème de l'amour et de la mer (Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer
Bordeaux National Opera Chorus
Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Contralto
Paul Daniel, Conductor
La Mer Victorin Joncières, Composer
Bordeaux National Opera Chorus
Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Contralto
Victorin Joncières, Composer
Water-wings and sea legs are required for Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s new disc, an enterprising Anglo-French programme of works inspired by the beautiful briny sea. I am surprised not to have encountered the pairing of Elgar’s Sea Pictures with Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer before as they go together rather well. To complete this aquatic disc, La mer … not Debussy’s overly familiar orchestral triptych but Joncières’s ode symphonique, receiving its first recording.

Félix-Ludger Rossignol de Joncières, or Victorin Joncières, was born in 1839 to a wealthy family. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire in 1859 60 but resigned after a dispute with his teachers about Wagner, whom he revered. He enjoyed success as a composer, especially with his opera Sardanapale, and as a critic, writing for La Liberté under the pseudonym ‘Jennius’.

La mer was composed in 1881, premiered at the Conservatoire. It sets poetry by Édouard Guinand for soloist – the ‘voice of the sea’ – and chorus. At times, it sounds quite staid, especially its choral contributions, but there’s a certain fragrance of Massenet about the writing and, harmonically, it’s not far removed from Franck or d’Indy. Of its four movements, the third, ‘La tempête’, is the most evocative, with piccolo lightning strikes, timpani thunder claps and tremolando strings as Lemieux powers through the writing before we reach the apologetically brief epilogue.

Lemieux is on imperious form in Sea Pictures. Her rich contralto sits easily in Elgar’s writing and although the diction isn’t as rock solid – understandably – as great Dames Janet Baker or Sarah Connolly, there’s a certain voluptuousness in ‘Sea Slumber Song’ which is mightily comforting, a warm caramel embrace. ‘Where corals lie’ is taken at a remarkably flowing pace by Paul Daniel and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, while ‘He shall assist me to look higher’ in ‘Sabbath Morning at Sea’ is simply majestic. The finale to ‘The Swimmer’ is a little histrionic, but this is the best Sea Pictures to come my way since Connolly’s for Chandos (paired with The Dream of Gerontius in 2014).

But the sea is at its most vividly descriptive in the Chausson, Daniel drawing out every mewing seagull cry, every foaming wave with great colour from his orchestra. Lemieux is magnificent here, completely at home in the fleshy vocal lines of Maurice Bouchor’s poetry to crown a really impressive, satisfying disc.

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