Debussy: Fêtes galantes - Set 1

Stella Doufexis has the ability to shape her lucid singing in accordance with the cadence of the language and, with the sensitive support of her accompanist Daniel Heife, to form poems in music that are rich in mysteries and small miracles.

The brief but close friendship between Chausson and Debussy was based, it would seem, on the attraction of opposites. The bourgeois, god-fearing, happily married Chausson, living on inherited money in a spacious apartment on the fashionable Boulevard de Courcelles, was free to pursue high-minded, respectable projects like his Symphony in B flat, declaring his allegiance to his teacher, the pater seraphicus, César Franck, or his opera, Le Roi Arthus, an attempt to transplant Wagner onto French soil. Debussy on the other hand, a bohemian, an atheist, with a roving eye, especially for green-eyed blondes and a love-hatred for Wagner that would inspire many of his finest works, was to be beholden to no one – hence his famous reply when asked what rules he followed: ‘Mon plaisir’. But it was in the field of the mélodie that the two men came closest.

Yet put the two composers side by side, as we witness in this creatively and intelligently conceived recital, and it takes your breath away. This was one of Christine Schäfer’s earliest recordings, during which time she was signed to Deutsche Grammophon, and Irwin Gage’s pianism is no mere ‘accompaniment’ – it is a vital ingredient and a partnership of equals.

Two of Britain’s leading exponents of French song, the acclaimed sopranos Lorna Anderson and Lisa Milne, join Malcolm Martineau for the second volume of Hyperion’s overview of Debussy’s haunting, mercurial songs. The French composer’s output in this genre extended throughout his life and he was always inspired by poetry—from his first adolescent attempts to set Paul Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes (which he later revised) to the Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, written five years before his death. All inhabit a universe of shifting colours and impressions, from the sensual, perfumed ‘flutes and flesh’ of the Chansons de Bilitis to the Proses lyriques, which foreshadow the dreamlike atmosphere of Pelléas et Mélisande.

Barbara Hendricks' voice — particularly suited to Mozart, Debussy, Fauré, and the lighter roles of Puccini and Richard Strauss — has a warm, crystalline quality that has kept her in demand on stage and in recording studios. Her performances have embraced everything from contemporary music to popular standards, including songs of Duke Ellington and several world premieres. She has been careful with her choices of repertoire, avoiding roles that would overextend her essentially lyric instrument. Aside from music, she is deeply committed to humanitarian work, with a particular concern for refugees and those in war or poverty zones. She sang a concert in Sarajevo in 1993 while the city was being shelled, in which she had to wear a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Hendricks has appeared on nearly 80 recordings spread over a variety of major labels. Her first of many recordings for EMI was in the small part of the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo in 1978. For nearly twenty years her solo recordings have been made exclusively for EMI Classics.

Jan Van der Crabben’s art has seduced the most demanding lovers of French melody. This is because, in the line of Bernard Kruysen or José Van Dam, he also has a rich experience as a soloist in baroque and classical music – namely with La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken – which nourished his musical thinking in a new and refined way. His previous CD with Fuga Libera (FUG510), devoted to Fauré, demanded a follow-up. It is Debussy, whom Van der Crabben serves today with his warm tone of voice, perfect style and pronunciation that we would have liked to submit to the ears and critical mind of Roland Barthes.

In this recital, covering thirty years of creation, dominated by Verlaine and the wonderful Fêtes galantes, the Belgian baritone is ideally accompanied by Inge Spinette, whose delicate colors equal the intelligence of the conception.

This recital includes songs by Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc, Honneger and Vuillermoz and was first released in 1999. Karina Gauvin is Canada’s superstar soprano and impressed audiences and critics the world over with her luscious timbre, profound musicality and wide vocal range.