Hector Berlioz; Maurice Ravel - Les Nuits d'été; Schéhérazade (Véronique Gens)

Information

Composer: Hector Berlioz; Maurice Ravel

1. Berlioz - Herminie: Moderato
2. Berlioz - Herminie: 1. Air. Adagio non troppo
3. Berlioz - Herminie: 2. Air. Allegro assai agitato
4. Berlioz - Herminie: 3. Air. Allegro impetuoso vivace
5. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 1. Villanelle
6. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 2. Le Spectre de la rose
7. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 3. Sur les lagunes
8. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 4. Absence
9. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 5. Au Cimetière
10. Berlioz - Les Nuits d'été: 6. L’Île inconnue
11. Ravel - Shéhérazade: Asie
12. Ravel - Shéhérazade: La flûte enchantée
13. Ravel - Shéhérazade: L'indifferent

Véronique Gens, soprano

Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire

John Axelrod, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: Ondine

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Review

This is an absolutely wonderful program. Of course Les Nuits d’été and Shéhérazade are old discmates, most famously on an outstanding disc featuring the late, great Régine Crespin. A dramatic soprano, Crespin’s voice was quite a bit larger than the comparative lightness and purity of Gens, but these songs aren’t Wagner, and each soloist does the music full justice in her own way. Especially in Les Nuits d’été, which isn’t really a song cycle, Gens and conductor John Axelrod team up to produce a performance that actually makes you forget that the work consists of two quick numbers enclosing four long, droopy ones. “Absence” and “Au Cimetière” seldom have sounded more flowing and purposeful.

Gens’ deft handling of the poetry also pays major dividends in the long first song of Shéhérazade, a travelogue that all too easily degenerates into a sort of impressionistic, French version of “I’ve Got A Little List”. Not here, with Gens conveying an unexaggerated feeling of wonderment, ably seconded by Axelrod’s colorful accompaniments. The brief concluding songs, “La flûte enchanté” and “L’indifférent”, are sexy but not smarmy, beautifully capturing Ravel’s delicately etched vocal lines. I can’t help but think, despite wonderful performances by non-French singers (Ely Ameling especially), how much it helps to have a native speaker take the part.

However, what makes this disc particularly desirable is the presence of Herminie, an early cantata by Berlioz that’s almost always passed over in favor of the more popular La mort de Cléopâtre. Herminie is not only a very enjoyable work in its own right, but it begins with a tune that’s nothing less than the “idée fixe” that later found a home in the Symphonie fantastique. The tune returns in the middle section of the aria “Arrête! Arrête! Cher Tancrède”, where it becomes an accompaniment to the vocal line (sound sample). As with everything on this program, the work is compellingly sung by Gens and conducted with conviction. The engineering is also excellent, with Gens’ voice captured with truly striking naturalism. Highest recommendation.

— David Hurwitz

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Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer, conductor and music critic. He initially studied medicine before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire. His landmark composition, Symphonie fantastique, established his reputation for imaginative orchestration and programmatic storytelling. Other major works include Roméo et Juliette, La Damnation de Faust, and Les Troyens. Being underappreciated in France during his lifetime, Berlioz gained international acclaim as a conductor and author of an influential orchestration treatise that shaped later generations of composers.

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire. After leaving the conservatoire, he found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles.

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Véronique Gens (born 19 April 1966) is a French operatic soprano. Born in Orléans, she studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and had her debut in 1986 with William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants. While she started out as a Baroque specialist, Gens has also come into demand for roles in Mozart operas, and as an interpreter of songs by Berlioz, Debussy, Fauré and others. Her numerous recordings (more than 90 CDs and DVDs) include many works by Mozart and Purcell, as well as Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne and Berlioz's Nuits d'été, and have received several international awards.

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