Berceuse de Jocelyn (Godard) - from CDA67831 - Hyperion Records

Reviews

‘[Gerhardt] and the superb Cecile Licad are wholly successful in this endeavour from the outset … he has created a well-contrasted programme … each work is presented with stylish devotion … this is cello playing of exquisite sophistication and bold imagination’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘There is much more to an encore, as Alban Gerhardt will tell you, than casually capping a recital with an audience-pleaser … listen to Gerhardt in Benjamin Godard’s Berceuse de Jocelyn and there is a paradigm of the exceptional eloquence and discernment that distinguishes the entire disc’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Gerhardt's playing [is] less heart-on-sleeve than Casals's own, but wonderfully eloquent and noble: he can be extraordinarily moving in such once-familiar standards as the Berceuse from Godard's Jocelyn, or in Casals's arrangement of Chopin's Raindrop Prelude’ (The Guardian)

‘Let me not turn tedious with a list of Gerhardt's superior skills, his seamless legato, his command of bowing skills, his generous tone even at the top of the A string, his glowing burnished double stops in the Popper/Chopin Nocturne … it goes without saying, though I better say it, that the playing is immaculate from both players, the sequence of pieces on the CD is nicely contrasted’ (International Record Review)

Four years younger than Fauré, Benjamin Godard was a child prodigy—like Saint-Säens before him he was often compared to the young Mozart—and he was only fourteen years old when he enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire to study composition. His first instrument was the violin, but it was as a violist that he was to gain an enviable reputation as a performer of chamber music. Godard’s reputation as a composer, however, has proved less enviable and nowadays the one piece for which he is remembered is the tender Berceuse for tenor (‘Oh! ne t’éveille pas encor’) from his opera Jocelyn, first performed in 1888. This arrangement for cello and piano is the composer’s own, published in 1896.

De quatre ans plus jeune que Fauré, Benjamin Godard a été un enfant prodige—comme Saint-Saëns avant lui, on l’a souvent comparé au jeune Mozart—et il n’avait que quatorze ans lorsqu’il est entré au Conservatoire de Paris pour étudier la composition. Son premier instrument a été le violon, mais c’est comme altiste qu’il allait se forger une belle réputation dans le domaine de la musique de chambre. Cependant, dans celui de la composition, sa réputation s’est avérée moins enviable et, de nos jours, le seul morceau pour lequel on se souvient de lui est la tendre Berceuse pour ténor («Oh! ne t’éveille pas encor») de son opéra Jocelyn, créé en 1888. Cet arrangement pour violoncelle et piano est celui du compositeur, publié en 1896.

Benjamin Godard, vier Jahre jünger als Fauré, war ein Wunderkind—wie vor ihm Saint-Saëns wurde er oft mit dem jungen Mozart verglichen—, und er war erst vierzehn, als er sich am Pariser Konservatorium zum Kompositionsstudium einschrieb. Sein erstes Instrument war die Geige, doch zu beneidenswertem Ruhm als Kammermusiker gelangte er mit der Bratsche. Godards Ruf als Komponist hat sich allerdings als weniger beneidenswert erwiesen, und das einzige seiner Stücke, das man heute noch kennt, ist die zarte Berceuse für Tenor („Oh! ne t’éveille pas encor“) aus seiner 1888 uraufgeführten Oper Jocelyn. Die vorliegende Bearbeitung für Cello und Klavier stammt vom Komponisten selbst und wurde 1896 veröffentlicht.

Recording details: June 2010
Concert Hall, Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: June 2011
Total duration: 5 minutes 22 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Alban Gerhardt. Sim Canetty-Clarke

Berceuse de Jocelyn

Alban Gerhardt (cello), Cecile Licad (piano)

Reviews

Introduction