Duparc: La Vie antérieure

Gabriel Bacquier has already, in his lifetime, entered the hallowed halls of great French singers. An incomparable actor, endowed with exceptional vocal means and an unbelievably rich timbre, he carried the art of interpretation to the highest level. For the first time on CD, Decca have issued a collection highlighting this baritone’s remarkable career.

This CD is the first in a new Cypres Archive series of recitals from La Monnaie. This theatre has played host to some of the most famous recitalists in the world and José van Dam has been chosen to launch the collection, as one of the greatest Belgian artists. There have been many fine evenings at La Monnaie and the label will release at least one CD per year in this series.

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.

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.

This CD presents a collection of French art songs – mélodies - covering a wide range of emotional and stylistic content from Fauré to Ibert. The French declamatory style emphasizes the text rather than the melody, but it is the piano part where the beauty of the music can shine through, both in the rich textures employed and in the special harmonies. This is particularly evident in the songs by Henri Duparc. The three songs by Ravel were his last works. Carlo Colombara has been a regular guest at the leading opera houses in Italy and abroad. He has worked with the most renowned conductors, such as Sir Colin Davis, Carlo Maria Giulini, Vladimir Jurowski, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Sir Georg Solti. Critics in Italy and abroad have praised his stylistic versatility and the dark timbre and the colourful diversity of Colombara’s voice makes him one of the most sought-after basses of our time.