Mélodies - La bonne chanson - 3 poèmes - Chansons madécasses

Description

For more than 40 years, Barbara Hendricks has been performing these French melodies on the world’s greatest stages. Since her first encounter with this repertoire during a master class in Aspen in 1968, the melodies of Fauré, then Ravel, have been added to her rich soprano repertoire. Accompanied by the finest Swedish instrumentalists, she offers a varied and colorful panorama of mélodie with chamber ensemble by two masters of French music. This program allows us to discover the richness of the sonorities of the works of Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel. Six mélodies by Fauré, on texts by Verlaine, open this recital; from Clair de Lune to C'est l'extase, all describe the feeling of love in a soft, hushed atmosphere. Fauré once again immerses himself in Verlaine’s poetry to compose La bonne chanson, a cycle originally written for voice and piano, before he arranged it for voice, piano and string quartet; in it, Fauré depicts a love passion in a restrained, refined and subtle style. Next come two major cycles by Ravel: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (Ravel’s favorite poet), whose texts were also set to music almost simultaneously by Debussy. The voice is accompanied by a chamber ensemble borrowed from Schönberg, evoking a miniature orchestra and allowing an infinite palette of instrumental colors. Finally, the program concludes with the Chansons madécasses for voice and chamber ensemble, inviting exoticism: flute, cello and piano. The three melodies of this cycle, of which Ravel was most proud, take us from warmth and eroticism to a virulent denunciation of colonialism; a committed work, as well as his finest achievement in the genre.