Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19

“Her impeccable command of Gallic language and style makes her ideally suited to this repertoire, more so, even, than Janet Baker…She is also blessed with one of the most magnificent of orchestral accompaniments, the Suisse Romande Orchestra recalling its glory days under Ansermet in the range and depth of its playing under Armin Jordan.” BBC Music Magazine

“[the transcription] enables a much lighter voice to sing a vocal part that calls for an Isolde or a Brangäne in symphonic performances...It also makes for an ideally balanced programme, two sung items sandwiching a fine performance of the String Quartet” Sunday Times, 4th July 2010 ***

“[The Poème transcription] is thoroughly convincing, and is one of the particular pleasures of this disc...the fusion of Wagnerian luxuriance and Gallic finesse in the two vocal works allows the soprano Salomé Haller ample scope for expressive poignancy and rapture.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

“Here is a side of Louis Vierne few of us will have encountered before: angry, bitter, vengeful and simply bursting with passion and high emotion. These are four brilliantly crafted songs with almost Wagnerian orchestral accompaniments which are dazzlingly reflected in performances of breathtaking intensity. ...the impressive French conductor, Guillaume Tourniaire, chooses Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer as a companion piece. Certainly Australian tenor Steve Davislim is every bit as impressive here as in the Vierne - and this is highly distinguished singing by any reckoning - while the Queensland Orchestra, on absolutely cracking form... On every count, this is a magnificent release.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009

“Poème de l’amour et de la mer boasts a majestic sweep and grandeur all of its own and out of which Davislim, Tourniaire and a Queensland Orchestra firing on all cylinders squeeze every ounce of emotion and drama. Inspired performances all round, then, in textbook perfect sound and lavish packaging” Michael Quinn, bbc.co.uk, 15th January 2010

“The temperature rose with the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, a superb interpreter of French music who gave one of the most intense accounts imaginable of Ravel's Shéhérazade. Few singers sound quite so involved here … Graham spun seamless phrases with Arabian Nights-like enchantment. Her warm tone was matched by an atmospheric accompaniment from the orchestra to voluptuous effect. In Le livre de Baudelaire, John Adams' arrangements of four Debussy songs, Graham phrased with caressing lightness.” (**** The Times)

“Only a brave, or foolhardy, composer sets about reorchestrating Debussy.
Yet that's what John Adams has done, in 'Le jet d'eau', the third of Debussy's Cinqpoèmes de Charles Baudelaire, the first four of which Adams has chosen to score for a modern orchestra. He's done an effective job, and if it makes the songs sound more boisterous, less mysterious than in the usual version for voice and piano, he's probably doing his soloist a big favour. By common consent, these are the most difficult of all Debussy's early songs. Susan Graham seems totally in command, her diminuendo on the words 'Et le charme des soirs' is tender, and is echoed a few bars later by Adams providing a nostalgic woodwind for the reference to those firelit evenings, 'par l'audeur du charbon'.
There's a lovely photograph, taken in 1893, the year of Poème de l'amour et de la mer. It shows Debussy, at Chausson's house, playing the piano. Both composers are in white shirts, surrounded by a peaceful group of family and friends, all in summer clothes, the windows openThis is the sort of mood this disc evokes.
Yan Pascal Tortelier and Susan Graham give Chausson's work a well-nigh perfect performance, capturing the sense of quiet regret at the memory of springtime love that has faded, and of a story that is never quite told.
As for Ravel's Shéhérazade, like nearly all mezzo-sopranos, Graham is stretched to the limits of her resources by the big climactic phrases in 'Asie'. She sings a hushed, beautiful 'La flûte enchantée' and a rather too sad 'L'indifférent', but it's all done with a fine line, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing Ravel's music with a good deal of passion.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“gives a fine performance of Dukas’s tone poem, one sensitive to the subtle melodic lines and the rich orchestration”. (The Gramophone)

The review in the February 1996 edition of Gramophone commented: “… the Chausson receives … [a] warmly spontaneous-sounding performance … here the string quartet is given its full weight instead of being a mere addendum, and that owes much to the playing of the Ysaÿe Quartet … speeds tend to be broader … and the style more freely idiomatic, making this among the most persuasive of all the performances I have heard of a work which — despite the inevitable problems of lining up such an ensemble — is at last establishing its rightful place as a late romantic masterpiece, not least thanks to recordings.”