Chants nostalgiques
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
La Bonne Chanson Op.61 (1894)
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Chanson Perpétuelle Op.37 (1898)
Charlotte Sohy (1887-1955)
Trois Chants Nostalgiques Op.7
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Poème de l’amour et de la mer Op.19 (1882-1893, arr. Franck Villard)

Marie-Laure Garnier (soprano), Célia Oneto Bensaid (piano), Quatour Hanson
rec. 2022, L’Estran à Guidel, Brittany, France
B Records LBM048 [65]

This disc enshrines a live performance given in March 2022. The programme is interesting, intelligent and extremely well played and sung by French soprano Marie-Laure Garnier alongside pianist Célia Oneto Bensaid and the Quatour Hanson. Looking online at Garnier’s concert diary it is clear that she has been performing elements of this programme at different venues and festivals in recent times so this is music that she – and her fellow performers – have considerable concert experience of. And that is certainly how it sounds with all the elements combining to make for a wholly enjoyable and impressive concert programme. The recording too is very fine; Garnier is placed centre front ‘surrounded’ by the string quartet. Perhaps Célia Oneto Bensaid’s piano is a fraction recessed but overall the blend of the accompanying instruments is very well handled.

One minor gripe/annoyance to mention; the quality of the accompanying documentation is abysmal. The words to all the songs (in original French and English translation only) are printed in a separate little booklet on low quality paper that sits inside the digipak so that it falls out the moment the gatefold is opened. Slotted into the left hand side of the gatefold is a rather bizarre fold-out “poster”. On one side is an ‘interview’ with Garnier where she rather gushes about the repertoire but gives the reader almost no insight into the music except that she likes it a lot. There is also an image of all the performers on a beach…. No detail about the music, no biographies about the composers – given the unfamiliarity of Charlotte Sohy that is frustrating – no artist biographies. But instead on the reverse of the interview is a rather beautiful but utterly irrelevant nature photograph. The liner has more information about the illustrator Anaȉs Boileau than any aspect of the music or performers which seems downright odd. Especially since the editions used are unusual or relatively rare.

A case in point is Fauré’s song cycle La Bonne Chanson which opens the programme. I must admit I was not familiar with the cycle in anything except the voice and piano form. A little online research revealed some information but I am not a whole lot clearer about the provenance of the version given here. The liner note from an old CBS/Marlboro Festival recording states the following; “Fauré’s song cycle is presented here in a very unusual setting for voice, piano and string quartet. The string parts may or may not be the work of the composer but they were apparently sanctioned by him, since this version was advertised on the cover of the original voice-and-piano edition. Martial Singher [the baritone on the CBS disc], who possesses the manuscript parts used in this recording (the printed edition if it ever got past the advertising stage, seems to have disappeared entirely), calls attention to the idiomatic use of strings without piano in the first song, suggesting that this song at least was first conceived by Fauré for voice and quartet and that the more familiar piano accompaniment is a later arrangement.” Yet online here you can view/download a manuscript which apparently is by the composer of this version which includes a part for doublebass not used in this current performance. Even more confusion is added by a reference to the New Grove which states “For medium voice, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, opt. double bass, and piano; originally for voice and piano. Arr. with piano, string quintet, 1898, repudiated (Cf. New Grove dict.).” It seems that since the CBS liner was written the work has been published in the piano and string accompanied version but some clarity from the publishers of this disc would have been welcome.

Gripe over, the performance here is impressive and strong. Garnier possesses a powerful and dramatic soprano voice. Perhaps this is more suited to the Wagner-influenced works by Chausson – I am more familiar with the lyrical performing style in this repertoire of the likes of Jacques Herbillon or Gérard Souzay who embody the tradition of French Mélodie. But that said Garnier is a compelling story-teller with clear, precise diction allied to apt and intelligent word-pointing. Additionally, she is quite beautifully accompanied by her colleagues. The combination of piano and string quartet alongside a voice is not exactly unusual but it can be so effective that I am surprised it is not frequently used. Whatever the truth of this cycle’s original genesis the writing for both keyboard and strings is a delight; subtle and nuanced played here with ideal flexibility and sophistication.

The great regret with the music of Ernest Chausson is that he died relatively young – killed instantly in when his bicycle hit a wall aged 44 – and that he did not write more – there are just 39 opus numbered works. Yet the music he did write is of a consistently high and original standard. Musically his greatest influences were Franck (his teacher) and Wagner – as with so many of his contemporaries he made the pilgrimage to Bayreuth. Modern ears can hear his music as the bridge between French Romantics and Impressionism but his music is expressive, individual and powerful. All three of those qualities are present in the two works by him offered on this disc. The Chanson Perpétuelle is a gorgeous piece, late within his opuses – 37 – and completely self-contained within its 6:19 time span it conveys a hothouse of emotions running the gamut of love, loss and death. The scoring is for voice – usually female – accompanied by piano and string quartet and given its quality it is no surprise that artists of the stature of Janet Baker, Jessye Norman, Anne Sophie von Otter and Barbara Hendricks to name just a few have recorded it. I last reviewed the work in 2010 here – where it also was coupled with Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer Op.19. In fact that earlier recording was the premiere of the same arrangement of the Poème by Franck Villard as here. As can be seen from the cursory list of other singers, both these works can be sung by sopranos (as here) or mezzo-sopranos. The singer on the disc I reviewed previously was soprano Salomé Haller. I singled out Chanson Perpetuelle as the highlight of that disc and returning to the performance I can understand why. Haller has a lighter more lyrical voice than Garnier and she takes a full minute more of longing and languor [7:19 to Garnier’s 6:19]. In fact both versions suit their singers well – they are quite different in approach and execution – the extra urgency of Garnier suiting her more vibrant voice. Likewise the accompaniments which are both models of attentive and musicianly subtlety.

Returning to my earlier review I think I was rather too dismissive of Villard’s arrangement of Chausson’s great orchestral work for piano quintet. Without a doubt the original version is one of the masterpieces of French orchestral song but on reflection I feel there is a value and indeed validity in this skilfully wrought transcription especially when it is played with the sophistication and insight that it is here by Célia Oneto Bensaid and the Quatour Hanson. Interestingly in both performances I found the central Interlude to be especially effective in this chamber version. Garnier’s performance of the two outer extended songs has a theatrical intensity that is very compelling – there were moments when the benevolent shade of Wagner seemed more present than I have previously registered. I see from the Wikipedia page about her that to date opera roles have included Tosca and one of the eponymous Valkyrie – certainly this sounds like a performance from a singer comfortable in those types of roles! This performance concludes the disc/concert very effectively.

Sandwiched between the two Chausson masterpieces is the work that originally piqued my interest when requesting the disc; the Trois Chants Nostalgiques Op.7 by Charlotte Sohy which give this disc its name. It is greatly to the credit of Sohy that her work sits so comfortably in the company of giants such as Fauré and Chausson. No thanks to the liner it transpires that this is another work that can be performed in various accompanying formats from piano to the chamber version on this disc to full orchestral. My MusicWeb colleague Göran Forsling reviewed the orchestrally accompanied version here and I can do no better than quote from his review to give some context; “These are sad poems, by Cyprien Halgan, lawyer and friend of Charlotte’s father, and the annotator wonders why a newly married and happy 23-year-old woman would wish to set them at that time. The answer is probably that she did so to satisfy her father….[Sohy] reveals her dramatic talent. It doesn’t say so anywhere in the notes, but I wonder if Ernest Chausson wasn’t a model for her. Not least the third song, sous ce ciel d’hiver, points in that direction. The songs were dedicated to the great mezzo Claire Croiza, who premiered them in Salle Pleyel in Paris in March 1912 with a string quartet and Charlotte Sohy at the piano”.

The comparison with Chausson is wholly apposite in the sense that the musical vocabulary and aesthetic is shared. As Goran mentions, the texts are strangely melancholy for a young composer just setting out on life’s adventures. The cycle closes with the words; “I summon you, oh Death!, Come! Come without remorse, without regret, come and deliver the one who feels weary, so weary of life in the freezing cold!” The mood is more pensive than the outburst above might suggest and Sohy’s harmonic palette rather more straightforward than either of the other composers on this disc but the way she immediately creates a mood and expressive scene is very impressive. The instrumental writing of the second song Le feu s’est éteint is likewise immediately evocative from flickering firelight to the passing of time. This is the first music by Sohy that I have encountered and certainly the quality of invention and attractive writing encourages me to seek out more of her works. Again all the performers are clearly invested in this music and the result is an attentive and nuanced reading. Perhaps again I can imagine a fractionally more lyric soprano in the role but there is no doubting the power and drama of Garnier’s interpretation.

So a wholly successful recital that brings insights to familiar repertoire and delight to the unfamiliar. As mentioned this is a recording of a single performance which must have been musically and physically demanding for all the artists but the level of technical and musical execution throughout is excellent. The audience are completely silent during the performances but the producers have decided to keep brief applause – quickly faded – after the completion of each work. Oddly, this applause seems rather half-hearted and dutiful rather than with the enthusiasm I feel it merits. Presentation apart, I enjoyed this disc a lot with the Charlotte Sohy cycle a delightful discovery.

Nick Barnard

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