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Track(s) taken from CDA68016

Le lilas, L36

First line:
Ô floraison divine du lilas
composer
early 1882
author of text
after Clément Marot

Jennifer France (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: February 2013
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: October 2014
Total duration: 1 minutes 59 seconds

Cover artwork: An Evening in Ancient Times (1908). Alphonse Osbert (1857-1939)
Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée du Petit-Palais, France / Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘Jennifer France sounds both charming and convinced, and her slightly soubrettish but always attractive sound (unfazed by the occasional stratospheric top note that Debussy evidently threw in, further to entice Mme Vasnier) adds a proper note of youthful abandon, just what these early settings need to bring them to life. Praise is also due to Malcolm Martineau for his total empathy with the always atmospheric but by no means easy accompaniments. The recorded sound is ideal ... Baritone Jonathan McGovern too is well cast, velvety in sound, easy on the ear’ (International Record Review)» More
In Le lilas, not specifically dedicated to Mme Vasnier despite the unaccompanied high B in the last line, Debussy gets away from strophic settings and gives us a song without any repeated music, though for his own musical reasons he does repeat two of Banville’s lines—no possibility of causing the poet offence since this song, like all his Banville ones except Nuit d’étoiles, remained unpublished until well into the twentieth century.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2014

Dans Le lilas, qui n’est pas expressément dédié à Mme Vasnier, malgré le si aigu non accompagné du dernier vers, il délaisse la forme strophique pour une mélodie dénuée de toute répétition, même si, pour des raisons musicales qui lui sont propres, il redit deux vers de Banville—lequel ne risquait pas d’en prendre ombrage, puisqu’aucune des pièces debussystes qu’il inspira (hormis Nuit d’étoiles) ne parut avant le XXe siècle.

extrait des notes rédigées par Roger Nichols © 2014
Français: Hypérion

In Le lilas, welches trotz des unbegleiteten hohen Hs in der letzten Zeile nicht ausdrücklich Mme Vasnier gewidmet ist, wendet sich Debussy von der strophischen Form ab und komponiert stattdessen ein Lied ohne jegliche musikalischen Wiederholungen (obwohl er aus musikalischen Gründen zwei Zeilen Banvilles wiederholt). Dem Dichter gab er keinen Anlass zum Ärgernis, da dieses Lied—wie auch alle anderen seiner Banville-Lieder, mit Ausnahme von Nuit d’étoiles—bis weit ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein unveröffentlicht blieb.

aus dem Begleittext von Roger Nichols © 2014
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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