Maria Belooussova, Wolfgang Holzmair - Chansons Francaises (CD ALBUM)

Maria Belooussova, Wolfgang Holzmair - Chansons Francaises (CD ALBUM)

'For me,' Wolfgang Holzmaironce remarked, 'the song is a continuation of speech –a higher form of expressing words and thoughts.' Over the course of three decades, the Austrian baritone has been true to his own belief in a stream of recitals and recordings of theLieder, chanson and art-song repertoire. As recently as 2012 his album of Mahler's songs from Des knabenWunderhornwas welcomed in Gramophone for his superb word-painting, 'replacing sheer vocal power with more Lieder-friendly qualities of agility, precision and nuance. Poetic narrative is everywhere apparent.'

Such qualities lend distinction to his newly released album of 'Chansons françaises'. Recorded in Vienna in 2012, Holzmairis partnered here by the Russian pianist Maria Belooussova, who has specialised in chamber-music partnerships with renowned instrumentalists and singers, among them IvryGitlisand Joseph Silverstein. Holzmair'spersonal selection focuses on the high-noon of the French art-song tradition in the later half of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th, moving between the exquisite melancholy of ThéophileGautier as set by Berlioz (in Les Nuitsd'été) and Duparc, and the pastis-dry wit of Alexandre Arnoux, who found his musical match in Jacques Ibert(Chansons de Don Quichotte).

Holzmairalso encompasses the visionary sensibility of Faure in L'Horizonchimérique, the sinuous opulence of Ernest Chausson(setting Gautier again in Les Papillons) and the folky simplicity of the Trois chansons de France by Debussy. Alongside an undoubted high-point in the entire French song repertoire (Ravel's last completed work, Don Quichotteà Dulcinée), Holzmairhas also unearthed a genuine rarity in the person of Eugène Anthiome(1836-1916), whose two songs recorded here for the first time belong to the Parisian salon, sweet and suave in the manner of Reynaldo Hahn.

Tracklistings:

HECTOR BERLIOZ

1–3Three songs from 'Les Nuitsd'été'

ERNEST CHAUSSON

4Le Colibri

5Les Papillons

6SérénadeItalienne

JACQUES IBERT

7Chanson à Dulcinée(Chansons de Don Quichotte)

MAURICE RAVEL

8–10Don Quichotteà Dulcinée

JACQUES IBERT

11Chanson de la mort (Chansons de Don Quichotte)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

12–13Deux romances sur la poésiede Paul Bourget

14–16Trois chansons de France

HENRI DUPARC

17Phidylé

18Lamento

19La vie antérieure

EUGÈNE ANTHIOME

20–21Deux melodies

GABRIEL FAURÉ

22Les Berceaux

23–26L'Horizonchimérique, Op. 118

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone

Maria Belooussova, piano

NEW RECORDINGS OF FRENCH SONGS