It was a pity that the Hyperion Schubert edition failed to hit its target completion date, but there have been compensations. On his periodic detours down the byways of French song Graham Johnson has produced some very worthwhile discoveries, of which this latest disc devoted to the neglected Deodat de Severac is certainly one. It would not be easy, or very helpful, to try to sum up Severac’s style in a single phrase. Perhaps because he preferred the provinces to metropolitan Paris, Severac may have felt under less pressure to stand out from the crowd. From the songs selected here we can trace a wide range of influences with Debussy as his closest musical relative and Duparc, Chabrier and even Canteloube as his second musical cousins. There is not a dull moment: impressionist tone-painting, eighteenth-century pastiche, folk-song arrangements all find a place here.
The songs that best reveal Severac’s stature are those composed under the influence of Pelleas et Melisande, such as Un reve and the lofty A l’aube dans la montagne, which display a sensitivity for word-setting worthy of Debussy. Formerly a respected Pelleas and earlier this year a no less superb Golaud at the Opera-Comique, Francois Le Roux knows his way around this style of music. Although the recording shows a marked decline in the freshness and focus of his voice, there is no baritone better placed to be our guide to Severac’s varied song output. Le Roux is just as engaging in the light-hearted folk-songs as in the masterly setting of Baudelaire’s mournful Les hiboux with its owls’ calls echoing in the accompanist’s right hand. Where Faure or Debussy composed rival settings, it would be too much to say they had met their match, but Severac has attractions of his own. The tuneful lullaby Ma poupee cherie (once recorded by Croiza and Vanni-Marcoux among others) would make a nice addition to any recital programme and, a few blushes notwithstanding, so would the wickedly naughty ditty Offrande. This is another of Johnson’s spot-on discoveries, with Patricia Rozario making an appealing guest appearance in two songs.'