Duparc: Lamento

The American baritone Barry McDaniel was one of the outstanding singers of the post-war era. As a successful opera singer and Lieder interpreter, he enjoyed a long and eventful career, both in Germany and abroad. Despite numerous performances and many recordings for radio and television, he nonetheless remained largely unnoticed by the media, partly because his name almost vanished in the shadow of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who was five years his senior. Unjustly so, since the two singers were equals as artists, albeit with different characters. Today, Barry McDaniel is hardly mentioned in specialist literature and one searches in vain for CDs since, until now, recordings from radio archives have not been phonographically processed. However, Audite now presents a première double CD of Lieder sung by Barry McDaniel. These studio recordings from the archives of Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (formally Sender Freies Berlin) were made between 1963 and 1974 with Hertha Klust and Aribert Reimann as accompanists.

This selection of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Duparc, Ravel and Debussy reveals diverse facets of McDaniel’s artistic personality. His interpretations are characterised by an interleaving of knowledge and naivety, feeling and craftsmanship, expression and impeccable singing. Apart from his immaculate technique, his accent-free German is particularly remarkable.

Barry McDaniel moved from the USA to Germany in 1953 in order to further his studies. He then gave his first song recitals, together with Hermann Reutter, and later began a career as an opera singer. In 1961 he was engaged at the newly re-opened Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he remained for thirty-seven years. At the same time, he gave guest performances at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Frankfurt Opera and the Munich Opera Festival, as well as broadcasting for radio and television. In addition, Barry McDaniel gave numerous song recitals, for example in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Brunswick and Berlin, including, in the latter city, the first ever song recital at the newly built Philharmonie in 1963. Today, the 81-year-old baritone declares: “Whatever I sing, I have to believe in it.” That is exactly how these recordings sound.

New Naïve signing baritone Stéphane Degout has already featured as soloist with the internationally renowned choral group Accentus on Brahms' German Requiem and Fauré's Requiem. The programme on his solo debut CD is a selection of mélodies by various French composers, Debussy, Ravel, Duparc, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, and Reynaldo Hahn. Stéphane Degout first met pianist Hélène Lucas when he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in 1995. She soon detected the young singer’s qualities and introduced him to the world of the mélodie and the lieder, and Stéphane gave his first recitals of this repertoire with Hélène Lucas as accompanist. After his acclaimed debut as Papageno at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the international operatic world opened its doors to him and kept him away from the lied and the mélodie for a while, but he has now returned to his roots.

Next to the great names of the French mélodie, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel, Gounod, Bizet, Chabrier and Saint-Saëns appear less often in the singer’s repertoire. Among the latter’s many songs the pieces featured here are splendid examples of subtle orientalism. The less numerous mélodies of Chabrier introduce a French approach to Wagnerism with highly elaborate piano parts and extremely sensual vocal lines. The third of the somewhat neglected mélodistes represented in this programme is Reynaldo Hahn. His vocal works are frequently viewed as relatively lightweight, but the two songs featured here Trois jours de vendanges, and Cimetière de campagne are full of depth and melancholy.

A French label, French composer and the complete song collection, the perfect combination. These songs - the thirteen for voice and piano of the 1911 edition and three youthful essays, together with a duet – were composed between 1868 and 1884. ‘Imperfect but brilliant’ – such was Ravel’s opinion on Duparc’s songs, but their brilliance should outweigh the imperfections if one considers posterity’s undying attachment to these songs that mark a high-point of expression in French music.

The complete melodic works of Duparc, the pinnacle of 19th-century song and the heart and soul of French Romanticism. A native of Quebec, Michèle Losier, has been applauded on numerous North-American opera stages, and impressed the judges of the 2008 Reine Elisabeth Singing Competition, where she met Daniel Blumenthal, the ideal accompanist, and together recorded this project in the Concertgebouw in Bruges.The result enablies us to admire the lesser known melodies of this great genius, next to his more celebrated masterpieces.