Fauré Chansons, Vol. 1
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Gabriel Fauré
Label: CRD
Magazine Review Date: 5/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CRD3476
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Chant d'automne (wds. Baudelaire: c1871) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Rêve d'amour (wds. Hugo: c1862) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Mai (c1862) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Après un rêve (wds. anon, trans Bussine |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (L')Aurore |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: Tristesse (wds. T. Gautier: c1873) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Dans les ruines d'une abbaye (wds. Hugo: c1 |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Les présents (wds. de L'Isle Adam) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (4) Songs, Movement: No. 4, La Rose (wds. L. de Lisle: 1890) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: Soir (wds. A. Samain) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: Le ramier |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (Les) Jardins clos |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: Nell (wds. L de Lisle: 1878) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: Automne (wds. A. Silvestre: 1878) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (3) Songs, Movement: Dans la fôret de septembre (wds. C. Mendès) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| En prière |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: Noël |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
| (2) Songs, Movement: Le parfum impérissable (wds. L. de Lisle) |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Gabriel Fauré, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Sarah Walker, Mezzo soprano |
Author:
The artists must have debated the matter of presentation, and to good effect. It is always a simple, businesslike and academically respectable solution to offer a chronological edition, the disadvantages of which are, however, weightier where Faure is concerned than they would be with, say, Schubert or Wolf. Faure's style, always refined and fastidiously abjuring banality, became ever more so; the melodic element, never lost, became ever less obvious, and the 'plums', the most frankly tuneful of the songs were written fairly early, around or just before 1880. Of these, this recital includes Nell, Notre amour, Automne and the best-known of all, Apres un reve. It starts with one of the very first, Reve d'amour, a setting, as by a subtler Gounod, of Hugo's S'il est un charmant gazon; and, chronologically (though not in programme-order), it ends with the charmingly various songs of Le jardin clos, a miniature song-cycle from 1914. The performances are fine, as comparisons confirm. What they also show, however, is that this is another of those recordings that follow the tiresome modern tendency to reduce the sense of immediate contact with the singer. The complete edition on EMI, of Faure's songs with Ameling and Souzay as the singers, like the comparatively recent but sadly deleted single-disc recital by Barbara Hendricks (EMI, 2/90), has the singers more vividly in focus. In this new record, it is as though we are sitting side-by-side with the pianist, or looking towards the singer over his shoulder.
At least this has its compensations in this instance, in that it is a distinct pleasure to follow Malcolm Martineau at work. He is one of the most sympathetic of accompanists, feeling with the singer in every detail of nuance and rubato, phrasing and breathing with her too. Comparing their performance of Le jardin clos with that of Ameling and Dalton Baldwin, one finds Martineau appreciably subtler, lighter in touch where appropriate, and technically bolder in, for example, the bright stippling effect of the piano writing in number 3. Sometimes Sarah Walker yields a point or two to Elly Ameling in responsiveness to words, but she is always alive, a genuine communicator, and many of the gentler songs are sung with the utmost tenderness and beauty.'
At least this has its compensations in this instance, in that it is a distinct pleasure to follow Malcolm Martineau at work. He is one of the most sympathetic of accompanists, feeling with the singer in every detail of nuance and rubato, phrasing and breathing with her too. Comparing their performance of Le jardin clos with that of Ameling and Dalton Baldwin, one finds Martineau appreciably subtler, lighter in touch where appropriate, and technically bolder in, for example, the bright stippling effect of the piano writing in number 3. Sometimes Sarah Walker yields a point or two to Elly Ameling in responsiveness to words, but she is always alive, a genuine communicator, and many of the gentler songs are sung with the utmost tenderness and beauty.'
Fauré Chansons, Vol. 1
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