Search - Maurice Ravel, Inva Mula, Valerie Millot :: Ravel Songs (Histoires naturelles, Chanccons madécasses)

Exquisite Songs Exquisitely Sung and Played

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Anna Russell, that inimitable lampooner of classical music foibles, once famously opined that French art songs are 'great poetry set to rather wispy music.' That's funny (and true) as far as goes, but it doesn't especially apply to the chansons and songs of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). His songs tend to have haute-cuisine meat on their bones and yet are polished like pieces of Lalique crystal. Ravel was one of the great early 20th-century composers for piano and his song accompaniments show no relaxation of his pianistic skills. Still, like most good song composers, his main attention was placed on melodic line and presentation of the text. And indeed in many of his songs the texts are 'great poetry.' We are fortunate in this 2CD set to have a wide selection of Ravel's songs and chansons. Since Amazon has not listed the contents of the set (at least at the time of writing this review), I will do so now. First are seven settings of folk poetry: Chansons espagnole, française, écossaise (Burns's 'Ye banks and braes'), italienne, hébraïque; Chanson du rouet; and Noël des jouets. These are followed on CD1 by:
Deux mélodies hébraïques
Deux épigrammes de Clément Marot
Cinq mélodies populaires grecques
Un grand sommeil noir
Manteau de fleurs
Si morne!
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (three chansons)CD2:
Histoires naturelles (five chansons)
Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer
Tripatos
Trois chansons (including 'Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis,' 'Nicolette,' and 'Ronde')Ronsard à son âme
Les grands vents venus d'outremer
Sainte
Sur l'herbe
Rêves
Vocalise - étude en forme de habanera
Chansons madécasses (three chansons, with flute, cello, piano)The singers, all resident in France and not completely listed yet by Amazon, are Inva Mula and Valérie Millot, sopranos; Claire Brua, mezzo; and Gérard Theruel and Laurent Naouri, baritones. The rock-solid and extremely sensitive accompanist is American pianist David Abramovitz. The recording was made at the 900-year-old Abbey of Fontevraud, now a cultural center located in the Anjou-Touraine region southwest of Paris.It is not possible to describe each of the songs and their performances here but I will mention several:Claire Brua, a really quite musical and rich-voiced mezzo, sings 'Rêves' exquisitely, as also the very first song, the sultry 'Chanson espagnole.' Inva Mula, a clear-voiced light soprano, does well by the Five Popular Greek Mélodies. I had never heard the 'Two Epigrams of Clément Marot' (that rather obscure French poet made better-known some years back in Douglas Hofstadter's thrilling book about translation, 'Le Bon Ton de Clément Marot,') and baritone Gérard Theruel sings them deliciously. Speaking of great poetry, how's this lyric? (in English translation) which is fully matched by Ravel's icy-hot setting:"Anne in sport threw some snow at me
That I certainly found cold;
But it was fire, the experience that I had,
For I was suddenly aflame."The much better known 'Chansons madécasses' and 'Histoires naturelles' are sung idiomatically by, respectively, Mme. Brua and M. Theruel. Finally, a word about a discovery for me, the 'Trois Chansons' of which the light-hearted final two are utterly delightful and sung with girlish élan by soprano Millot. She would be a wonderful candidate for, say, the last movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony; her voice has that pure quality so needed there. I am thrilled to have this collection of so many of Ravel's songs in one place. I would not want to give up my recordings of 'Chansons madécasses' by Jan de Gaetani or 'Don Quichotte à Dulcinée' by José van Dam in the orchestral version. But I honestly believe I'll be reaching for this set frequently over the years. CD1=62:13
CD2=59:43Scott Morrison"

From Madagascar to bestiaries

Ingrid Heyn | Melbourne, Australia | 06/01/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ravel's vocal music is fantastic stuff indeed, and this recording offers a very good selection of almost all of it. The singers include the extremely good Claire Brua (whom I first heard in the delightful duet album "Vivent les vacances") and Laurent Naouri, who is a wonderful baritone with a terrific sense of line and colour.



I thought the two sopranos and the second baritone were not as good as Brua and Naouri, though. Inva Mula-Tchako, who sings the Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, is light-voiced and quite pleasant of timbre (although neither gorgeous nor a great interpreter), but the other soprano, Valerie Millot, disappointed me very much. Her "Manteau de fleurs" was uninteresting and lacking in beauty compared to the ravishing recording of this song by Elly Ameling (and even the singing of this by Mady Mesplé pleased me more).



Gerard Theruel's singing of the "Chanson française" was mostly dreadful - and one of his vocal problems was cruelly highlighted in that track. He has a tendency to go under pitch (badly enough to irritate), and usually it's the result of singing a C or above after singing a lower note requiring a leap upwards of a fourth or more. However, he did a MUCH better job with the "Histoire naturelles", to which I enjoyed listening.



Claire Brua's best singing may well be the "Chansons madécasses", which are given a dark, sensuous and dangerous treatment entirely in keeping with the poetry and settings. She has a beautiful mezzo voice which she uses very intelligently indeed.



Laurent Naouri was particularly admirable in... well, actually, in all he sang. He's a very, very good baritone with such a sympathy for the feeling and style - you will be sure to love his performance and singing of the "Chanson hébraîque", the "Deux mélodies hébraîques" (although I still do prefer Jessye Norman's singing of "Kaddish"), the sombre "Un grand sommeil noir", the fantastical "Don Quichotte à Dulcinée", the "Ronsard à son âme", the "Les grand vents venus d'outremer", the exquisite "Sainte" and the wonderfully bizarre "Sur l'herbe". (But for the definitive singing of "Sur l'herbe", listen to Gabriel Bacquier's rendering which is nothing short of amazing, lacking no folly or perfection!)



In short, PARTICULARLY because this is incredibly good value, this is a valuable set to have. The playing of accompanist David Abramovitz is, I agree, excellent, and he supports the singers magnificently.



I would like to recommend two other recordings as well. In particular, because the repertoire almost entirely overlaps, the 2CD set released by EMI, called "Ravel Mélodies", in which Teresa Berganza, Felicity Lott, Mady Mesplé, Jessye Norman, Gabriel Bacquier and José Van Dam sing with some of the best renditions of these songs that are available. In particular, Bacquier's utterly amazing "Histoires naturelles" is not to be missed! Secondly, Elly Ameling's completely delightful recording of Ravel songs, entitled "Ravel: Shéhérazade" includes not only the Shéhérazade cycle (with piano instead of orchestra - I think this is the only recording of it with piano accompaniment), but also a positive plethora of Ravel's most ravishing songs - Manteau de fleurs, Trois beaux oiseaux de paradis (very hauntingly sung), Nicolette, D'Anne qui lui jecta de la neige, D'Anne jouant de l'espinette, the "Cinq mélodies populaires grecques", Tripatos, the "Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé", "Noël des jouets" and "Sainte".



As beautiful as Ms Ameling's singing of the Mallarmé songs were, I still feel there is one interpretation of them even finer - by Suzanne Danco. If you can get hold of that recording, you are sure to fall in love with her singing in those three songs, for somehow her tone is exactly the right sound for these wonderfully enigmatic and detached poems in Ravel's setting.



The "Cinq mélodies populaires grecques", sung on this Naxos 2CD set in the original Greek version (much less usual than the French version), are - although quite pretty on this set - better represented in the performance by Barbara Hendricks in her recording entitled "Ravel/Duparc: Mélodies/Songs". That's an exquisite recording, well worth getting for both the Ravel and the Duparc.



In short - I like quite a lot of this recording, but I am not taken at all by one of the sopranos, am not entirely enthused by the other soprano and one of the baritones, but think very highly of the mezzo and the second baritone. Certainly it's a recording worth having, but I would not take it in preference to my other Ravel recordings."