Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA67334

Lydia, Op 4 No 2

composer
c1870, Op 4 No 2, ‘À Mme Marie Trélat’, Hamelle: First Collection p32, G major (original key F major) 4/4 Andante
author of text

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: August 2004
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Release date: April 2005
Total duration: 3 minutes 22 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Michael Schade (tenor), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Reviews

‘All the singers involved in this ideally presented and recorded offering perform with a special ardour and commitment and Graham Johnson is, as always, a matchless partner and commentator. I can scarcely wait for Volume 3’ (Gramophone)

‘There can be nothing but praise for Johnson's pianism and his selection and arrangement of the songs. Volumes 3 and 4 are eagerly awaited’ (The Sunday Telegraph)

‘The chronological placement of songs within the programme highlights the composer's development and the quality and variety of Fauré's achievement shine through. As well as providing his usual comprehensive notes, Johnson is as ever a perceptive accompanist’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The discreet but authoritative Graham Johnson has masterminded a pleasing sequence of more than two dozen songs shared among eight singers. For my money, the soprano Geraldine McGreevy is the star of the enterprise. The way she adjusts her tone colour—indeed, her whole musical personality—between songs, is often remarkable … Johnson's annotations are both erudite and valuable as listening aids’ (The Independent)

‘As before, Johnson's notes are a model of what's required, whether you are an adept in Fauré's mélodies or a newcomer. They are stylish, informative and suffused with his passion for this music. Then there's his own artistry, authoritative but never overbearing’ (International Record Review)
On the composer’s return to Paris after the upheavals of the Commune he heard Duparc’s new masterpiece L’invitation au voyage. That work is a turning point in French song; it also introduced Fauré to Baudelaire’s work and encouraged him to consider moving away from composing romances to the long poems of Hugo. Instead he began to tackle shorter poems by younger poets that had the power to create a more intense musical atmosphere. Leconte de Lisle’s Lydia (No XVII of the ‘Études latines’ section of his Poèmes antiques of 1852) was an ideal match with the composer’s new espousal of the mélodie. The simplicity of the music on the page belies a stunning new sophistication in Fauré’s approach. The vocal line is shadowed by the voice adding to the Attic purity of the evocation; the attenuated piano-writing avoids anything unseemly or immodest. An ancient Greek atmosphere is created partly by use of the Lydian mode, the sharpened fourth of the scale. This gentle exoticism adds to the music’s rarefied charm; it is as if we are breathing the air of Parnassus (the marvellous postlude dissolves into those ethereal regions more convincingly than the ascension depicted in Schubert’s Ganymed). At ‘tes baisers de colombe’ the undulating vocal line, accompanied by gently fluting thirds, is the most convincing illustration of cooing doves in all song. Dove imagery is welcomed; Leconte de Lisle’s description of Lydia’s neck being as ‘fresh and pale as milk’ is another matter! Confronted with the poet’s ‘Et sur ton col frais, et plus blanc / Que le lait’ Fauré, with devilish cunning, changes ‘plus’ to ‘si’ and simply leaves out ‘Que le lait’, allowing ‘blanc’ to link with the next verb ‘roule’. A piano interlude (bars 6 to 7) stands in for the judicious cut. If this song owes its existence to Duparc, that composer’s Phydilé was certainly inspired by Lydia, as was Chausson’s Hébé (all three song heroines were Leconte de Lisle’s Grecian nymphs).

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2005
English: Hypérion

De retour à Paris, après le branle-bas de la commune, Fauré entendit le nouveau chef-d’œuvre de Duparc, L’invitation au voyage. Cette pièce, qui marque un tournant dans la mélodie française, fut aussi celle qui initia Fauré à l’œuvre baudelairien, qui l’incita à se départir de ses romances sur de longs poèmes hugoliens. Dès lors, il s’attaqua à des poèmes plus courts, signés d’auteurs plus jeunes, à même de créer une atmosphère musicale plus intense. Lydia de Leconte de Lisle (noXVII des «Études latines» tirées de ses Poèmes antiques, 1852) convint idéalement à ces nouvelles noces fauréennes avec la mélodie. La simplicité de la musique, sur le papier, dément une sophistication étonnamment neuve de l’approche de Fauré. La ligne vocale, filée par la voix, ajoute à la pureté attique de l’évocation, cependant que l’écriture pianistique atténuée évite tout ce qui serait inconvenant ou immodeste. Un parfum de Grèce antique naît en partie de l’usage du mode lydien, la quarte diésée de la gamme – un doux exotisme qui exacerbe le charme raffiné de la musique; c’est comme si nous humions l’air du Parnasse (le merveilleux postlude se fond de manière plus convaincante dans ces sphères éthérées que l’ascension dépeinte par Schubert dans Ganymed). À «tes baisers de colombe», la ligne vocale flexueuse, accompagnée de tierces discrètement flûtées, est, de toute cette mélodie, l’illustration la plus probante de colombes en train de roucouler. L’image de la colombe est bienvenue; la description que Leconte de Lisle fait du col de Lydia, «frais et blanc comme le lait», est une autre affaire! Confronté au «Et sur ton col frais, et plus blanc / Que le lait» du poète, Fauré, avec une finesse diabolique, change le «plus» en «si» et supprime carrément «Que le lait», laissant l’adjectif «blanc» faire le lien avec le verbe suivant, «roule». Un interlude pianistique (mes. 6 à 7) assure une césure judicieuse. Si cette mélodie doit son existence à Duparc, Phydilé, du même Duparc, fut, elle, certainement inspirée par Lydia, qui inspira aussi Hébé de Chausson (ces trois héroïnes de mélodies étant des nymphes grecques de Leconte de Lisle).

extrait des notes rédigées par Graham Johnson © 2005
Français: Hypérion

Other albums featuring this work

Fauré: The Complete Songs, Vol. 1
Studio Master: SIGCD427Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Of ladies and love
CDA67315Last few CD copies remaining
Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...