Panzéra sings Fauré,Duparc & Schumann
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: André Caplet, Gabriel Fauré, (Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Claude Debussy, Reynaldo Hahn, (Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Camille Saint-Saëns, (Marie-Joseph-Alexandre) Déodat de Séverac
Label: Références
Magazine Review Date: 3/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 764254-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (L')Invitation au voyage |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Sérénade florentine |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (La) Vague et la cloche |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Extase |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Phidylé |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (Le) Manoir de Rosemonde |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Lamento |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Chanson triste |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Testament |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Élégie |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Soupir |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (La) Vie antérieure |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Chanson pour le petit cheval |
(Marie-Joseph-Alexandre) Déodat de Séverac, Composer
(Marie-Joseph-Alexandre) Déodat de Séverac, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (Le) cimetière de campagne |
Reynaldo Hahn, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano Reynaldo Hahn, Composer |
| D'une prison |
Reynaldo Hahn, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano Reynaldo Hahn, Composer |
| (2) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Clair de lune (wds. Verlaine) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (3) Poèmes d'un jour, Movement: Adieu |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (L)'Horizon chimérique, Movement: Je me suis embarqué |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (L)'Horizon chimérique, Movement: Diane Séléné |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: La chanson du pêcheur (wds. T. Gautier: ?1872) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (Le) pas d'armes du Roi Jean |
Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Piero Coppola, Conductor |
| Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Movement: ~ |
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer (Anonymous) Orchestra Charles Panzéra, Baritone Piero Coppola, Conductor |
| (Le) Vieux coffret |
André Caplet, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra André Caplet, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Piero Coppola, Conductor |
| Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons |
Claude Debussy, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Charles Panzéra, Baritone Claude Debussy, Composer Piero Coppola, Conductor |
| (3) Ballades de François Villon, Movement: Ballade que Villon feit à la requeste de sa mè |
Claude Debussy, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Charles Panzéra, Baritone Claude Debussy, Composer Piero Coppola, Conductor |
Composer or Director: (Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Gabriel Fauré, Robert Schumann
Label: Pearl
Magazine Review Date: 3/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 73
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: GEMMCD9919
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Dichterliebe |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Alfred Cortot, Piano Charles Panzéra, Baritone Robert Schumann, Composer |
| (La) Bonne chanson |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: La chanson du pêcheur (wds. T. Gautier: ?1872) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Les berceaux (wds. Prudhomme: 1879) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Charles Panzéra, Baritone Gabriel Fauré, Composer Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Chanson triste |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| Soupir |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (L')Invitation au voyage |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
| (La) Vie antérieure |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Charles Panzéra, Baritone Madeleine Panzéra-Baillot, Piano |
Author: Lionel Salter
One of the greatest interpreters of the French vocal repertoire, the inspirer and dedicatee of Faure's last cycle L'horizon chimerique (superlatively sung on this Dante Lys issue, the ''Diane, Selene'' ravishingly beautiful) and a very fine Pelleas—part of his Act 3 tower scene is also included in the same set—Charles Panzera was in fact Swiss by birth, though trained and active in France: the same was the case with Cortot, who is heard with him in Schumann's Dichterliebe on the Pearl disc. Panzera had made his debut in opera (Massenet's Werther), but his true metier lay rather in the concert-hall and recording studio: his voice may have lacked power in the theatre, but as a recording artist he was a living legend, a master of colour and nuance, with a striking beauty of tone, sensitivity, a cultured refinement and an ability to penetrate to the heart of a song, investing every word with meaning.
Admirers of his artistry may well be dazed by this present flood of reissues (mainly of Faure and Duparc) which range from his very earliest recordings in 1923 to his 1937 discs: the dozen duplications (and five triplications) of the same versions between these sets creates something of a maze, and in addition there are more than half a dozen alternative performances, plus two orchestral versions of Duparc melodies on the Pearl disc, and one of those and an orchestrated Faure song on EMI. Just to complicate matters further, a Dante Lys track listed as Faure's Adieu (and with its words supplied) turns out to be not that at all but Gounod's Le soir: somebody obviously didn't bother to check. Sorting out, assessing and comparing all this for review has been both a nightmare in trying to keep a clear head and a delight in hearing so much superb artistry (not forgetting the distinguished accompaniments by Panzera's wife, who had been a pupil of Faure and Cortot).
The most comprehensive collection here is of course the Dante Lys double set, which contains practically everything that is on the EMI disc plus another 15 songs Faure songs and Panzera's classic recording of the La bonne chanson cycle. This latter also appears on Pearl, but on all the items there the surface noise from the original 78s is very obtrusive (especially so in Duparc's Chanson triste and Soupir), whereas noise suppression has been effectively applied on the other two issues—Dante Lys even more successfully than EMI except, for some reason, the Caplet ''Foret'' and Debussy's second Villon ballade. In view of the range of recording dates there are inevitably differences of quality (at its weakest in the cramped tone of a Pathe-derived Faure Clair de lune, at its best in a remarkably fine Berlioz Mephisto serenade which is both seductive and sardonic); and in many of the Faure and Duparc songs the voice—intimate and caressing as it is—is placed not only very forward in relation to the piano but in a slightly different acoustic: what is interesting is that in cases where Panzera re-recorded songs, sometimes at the distance of a decade, his interpretations remained remarkably constant. There is, throughout, the most vivid intensification and illumination of the verbal text and response to changing moods (the rarely heard Saint-Saens ballad is a case in point), and Panzera can vary his tone from the pale pathos of Hahn'sD'une prison to the fine ringing climax of Severac's Chanson pour le petit cheval.
As well as the French repertoire here (in which the Duparc songs, on both Dante Lys and EMI, are perhaps especially memorable), Panzera shows that he was equally pre-eminent as a Lieder singer. Admittedly Schubert's ''Doppelganger'' gains nothing by orchestration, and sung in French it loses some of its atmosphere; but his performance with Cortot of Schumann's Dichterliebe has understandably become a classic. A warning is necessary that there is surface noise and that their performance employs a great deal of rubato (the very opening bars of the cycle, for example, would arguably have been better if taken more simply and directly, and Cortot, the bumping of whose pedal is audible throughout, often speeds up freely in piano postludes), but the expressive commitment of both artists carries everything before them. Panzera's intensity in his first words leaves no doubt that the month of May really was ''wunderschon'': he is adept in his use of mezza voce, he conveys the rapture of ''Wenn ich kusse deine Mund'', and can range from the bright tone of ''Ein Jungling liebt ein Madchen'' and the sternness of ''Im Rhein, im heiligen Strom'' to the bitterness of the final song of the cycle (sung particularly slowly).
This documentation of a great artist should be an inspiration to all students of singing and a source of admiration for all connoisseurs. It is a pity that neither EMI nor Pearl print any texts, and that Dante Lys provide only some (frustratingly, not the less familiar items) and even those not very accurately.'
Admirers of his artistry may well be dazed by this present flood of reissues (mainly of Faure and Duparc) which range from his very earliest recordings in 1923 to his 1937 discs: the dozen duplications (and five triplications) of the same versions between these sets creates something of a maze, and in addition there are more than half a dozen alternative performances, plus two orchestral versions of Duparc melodies on the Pearl disc, and one of those and an orchestrated Faure song on EMI. Just to complicate matters further, a Dante Lys track listed as Faure's Adieu (and with its words supplied) turns out to be not that at all but Gounod's Le soir: somebody obviously didn't bother to check. Sorting out, assessing and comparing all this for review has been both a nightmare in trying to keep a clear head and a delight in hearing so much superb artistry (not forgetting the distinguished accompaniments by Panzera's wife, who had been a pupil of Faure and Cortot).
The most comprehensive collection here is of course the Dante Lys double set, which contains practically everything that is on the EMI disc plus another 15 songs Faure songs and Panzera's classic recording of the La bonne chanson cycle. This latter also appears on Pearl, but on all the items there the surface noise from the original 78s is very obtrusive (especially so in Duparc's Chanson triste and Soupir), whereas noise suppression has been effectively applied on the other two issues—Dante Lys even more successfully than EMI except, for some reason, the Caplet ''Foret'' and Debussy's second Villon ballade. In view of the range of recording dates there are inevitably differences of quality (at its weakest in the cramped tone of a Pathe-derived Faure Clair de lune, at its best in a remarkably fine Berlioz Mephisto serenade which is both seductive and sardonic); and in many of the Faure and Duparc songs the voice—intimate and caressing as it is—is placed not only very forward in relation to the piano but in a slightly different acoustic: what is interesting is that in cases where Panzera re-recorded songs, sometimes at the distance of a decade, his interpretations remained remarkably constant. There is, throughout, the most vivid intensification and illumination of the verbal text and response to changing moods (the rarely heard Saint-Saens ballad is a case in point), and Panzera can vary his tone from the pale pathos of Hahn's
As well as the French repertoire here (in which the Duparc songs, on both Dante Lys and EMI, are perhaps especially memorable), Panzera shows that he was equally pre-eminent as a Lieder singer. Admittedly Schubert's ''Doppelganger'' gains nothing by orchestration, and sung in French it loses some of its atmosphere; but his performance with Cortot of Schumann's Dichterliebe has understandably become a classic. A warning is necessary that there is surface noise and that their performance employs a great deal of rubato (the very opening bars of the cycle, for example, would arguably have been better if taken more simply and directly, and Cortot, the bumping of whose pedal is audible throughout, often speeds up freely in piano postludes), but the expressive commitment of both artists carries everything before them. Panzera's intensity in his first words leaves no doubt that the month of May really was ''wunderschon'': he is adept in his use of mezza voce, he conveys the rapture of ''Wenn ich kusse deine Mund'', and can range from the bright tone of ''Ein Jungling liebt ein Madchen'' and the sternness of ''Im Rhein, im heiligen Strom'' to the bitterness of the final song of the cycle (sung particularly slowly).
This documentation of a great artist should be an inspiration to all students of singing and a source of admiration for all connoisseurs. It is a pity that neither EMI nor Pearl print any texts, and that Dante Lys provide only some (frustratingly, not the less familiar items) and even those not very accurately.'
Charles Panzéra sings French Songs
Panzéra sings Fauré,Duparc & Schumann
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.