Duparc: Sérénade

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.

These rarely recorded works are brought together by two musicians with a passion for the works of Henri Duparc. His compositional aim was to move every audience , and in his words - “ True music, the only music, is the music of the soul, of emotion….if the artist, in the process of finding ideas, does not feel the thrill of emotion, he will never be moving” This recording is a testament to this both from the composers and the artists perspective.

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.