Belle époque!
Adèle Charvet (mezzo-soprano)
Florian Caroubi (piano)
rec. 2024, Scène nationale de Grand Poitiers, France
French texts & English translations
Alpha Classics 1175 [69]

This recital celebrates the art songs of the Belle Époque by the three great French melodists, Massenet, Debussy and Fauré, and their protégés.

Mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet has a warm, steady voice, pellucid French diction, and an evident rapport with her accompanist Florian Caroubi, whose flexible, sensitive phrasing complements her own nuanced delivery. The balance between voice and piano is ideal and the programme alternates intriguingly between familiar and lesser-known French composers, sustaining the listener’s interest. The provision of texts and translations is of inestimable help in allowing us to savour these delicate confections; as a francophile/phone I revel in the heady admixture here and am particularly struck by the fact that despite the strength of her middle and lower notes, Charvet’s voice does not harden or turn shrill above G up to a high B-flat, indicating that she is a properly developed mezzo, not “pushed up” or truncated.

The intermittent appearance of better-known numbers such as Massenet’s Mélodie (track 5), the first of three purely instrumental pieces included here, beautifully played, followed by Chausson’s Le colibri, provides further variety and interest. Yes; the prevailing mood is sombre and yearning – the texts are drawn from the best of 19C French Romantic poets such as Gautier, Verlaine and Mallarmé – but the only sensible response is to surrender to that orgy of melancholy. An exception is Aubert’s spikier Le vaincu; a more modern, tumultuous-sounding outpouring, published in 1917, but hardly incongruous with the overt emotionalism of the main body of songs. For me, further interest resides in hearing Fauré’s setting of Gautier’s La chanson du pêcheur, much more familiar from its inclusion in Berlioz’ Nuits d’été. A further exception and surprise is Enesco’s Entsagen, written in and sung in German, its inclusion justified by the fact that the composer was a pupil of both Massenet and Fauré. Likewise, the song by Albéniz is here because of its obvious debt to Debussy and its dedication to Fauré. It is sung to an English text by his friend and patron Francis Coutts; in addition to singing so attractively in her mother tongue, Charvet deploys impeccable English and German. Song after song hits the mark; I especially enjoy the soaring L’énamourée (The Woman in Love) by Renaldo Hahn with its memorable refrain; it is followed by Messager’s equally ecstatic hymn to peace, La paix de blanc vêtue (White-clad Peace), lifting the mood somewhat, then we hear Debussy’s familiar Prélude, La fille aux cheveux de lins on the piano, completing an exquisite trio.

Three more art songs round off a simply captivating recital, Massenet’s Crépuscule being especially touching with its naïve refrain, “Les coccinelles sont couchées” (The ladybirds have gone to bed). Lovers of this genre need not hesitate; this will be one of my records of the year.

Ralph Moore

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Contents
1.Massenet: Nuit d’Espagne
2.Koechlin: 4 mélodies, Op. 22: No. 2, Novembre
3.Debussy: Apparition, CD 57
4. Leroux, X: Les Frissons: Plainte d’Amour
5. Massenet: Dix pièces de genre, Op. 10: No. 5, Mélodie in E Minor
6. Chausson: 7 Mélodies, Op. 2: No. 7, Le colibri
7. Madeleine Dubois: Spleen
8. Aubert, L: Six poèmes arabes: No. 2, Le Vaincu
9. Fauré: 2 mélodies, Op. 4: No. 1, La chanson du pêcheur
10. Moret, E: Elle et moi: No. 1, Tu peux baisser la tête
11. Enescu: Entsagen
12. Fauré: 5 mélodies “de Venise”, Op. 58: No. 2, En sourdine
13. Fauré: Romance sans paroles, Op. 17: No. 3, Andante moderato in A-Flat Major
14. Debussy: Trois Chansons de Bilitis, CD 97: No. 2, La Chevelure
15. Albéniz: Quatre mélodies, Op. 9: No. 2, Paradise regained
16. Hahn, R: L’Enamourée
17. Messager: La paix de blanc vêtue
18. Debussy: Préludes, Livre 1: No. 8, La Fille aux cheveux de lin
19. Caplet: 5 ballades françaises: No. 5, L’adieu en barque
20. Massenet: Poème pastoral: No. 5, Deuxième Intermède. Crépuscule, DO 171
21. Bachelet: Chère nuit