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Track(s) taken from SIGCD263

Tel jour telle nuit, FP86

composer
December 1936 to January 1937; Neuf mélodies sur des poèmes de Paul Éluard
author of text

Dame Felicity Lott (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
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Recording details: September 2010
St Michael's Church, Summertown, Oxford, United Kingdom
Produced by John H West
Engineered by Andrew Mellor
Release date: May 2011
Total duration: 15 minutes 9 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Dame Felicity Lott (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)
Sarah Fox (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)

Reviews

'This is very much the mixture as before in the first of Signum's projected cycle of the complete Poulenc songs … Lorna Anderson sings delightfully the three Lorca songs, very simple in their lyricism … Felicity Lott demonstres her mastery of French operetta style. Signum again provides excellent notes by Roger Nichols and full texts and translations' (Gramophone)

'This second volume of a projected complete survey of Poulenc's songs 'a delightful prospect' begins with one of his earliest and longest examples, the waltz-song Toreador, which Poulenc described as a caricature of a music-hall song. Christopher Maltman sings it stylishly, with Malcolm Martineau contributing his usual artistry in conjuring a whole world of colours and moods from the piano part … singers score pretty high in their projection and pronunciation of diverse texts, and their all-round musicianship … overall this album is guaranteed to bring hours of pleasure—a must-have for Poulenc fans' (MusicWeb International)» More
This is by far the most famous of Poulenc’s song cycles—in the same way that Dichterliebe can be said to be the most famous of Schumann’s. Just as that composer’s musical relationship with the poet Heine is perfectly expressed within the sixteen songs of Dichterliebe, Poulenc’s affinity with Éluard is made crystal clear in the nine separate, but musically interconnected mélodies of Tel jour telle nuit, a cycle in the same way that Fauré’s La bonne chanson is a cycle, the last song a summing-up of what has gone before. The work was begun in December 1936 in Noizay and was completed by January 1937 with the first and last songs composed as a matching pair in Lyon. The distinction of the dedicatees show Poulenc’s confidence: Pablo Picasso, Freddy (Fréderique Lebedeff, later the mother of his daughter), Nush (sic) Éluard, Valentine Hugo, Marie-Blanche de Polignac (songs v and vi), Denise Bourdet, Pierre Bernac and Yvonne Gouverné (the choral conductor who introduced almost all of Poulenc’s choral music to the world). How it came to be that the mauvais garçon of French music, the spoiled son of a rich family who had been famous for his insouciance and his Leg Poulenc, found it within himself to voice the quiet radiance, the humility and grandeur, the rapture, the terror, the profound humanity and compassion of this great poet is one of the mysteries of French music. Like Die schöne Müllerin for Schubert, this was a watershed work. In early January 1937 with the first performance only a month away, Poulenc asked the poet for a title for the work (each of the songs had individual titles which the composer declined to use). Éluard supplied a choice of four epithets for the cycle as a whole; his preferred choice was Tout dire, but Poulenc selected his second suggestion, Tel jour telle nuit, which encompasses the contrast between the opening and closing songs.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2013

Si les chansons d’Apollinaire sont de terre et d’eau (le pavé de Paris, le murmure de la Seine), celles de Paul Éluard sont de feu et d’air. Car force est de reconnaître que Poulenc ne conçut ses plus grandes mises en musique apollinariennes qu’après être passé par le feu affineur de la poésie d’Éluard. 1936 fut une année charnière: Poulenc perdit un de ses amis, le compositeur Pierre-Octave Ferroud, dans un macabre accident; une expérience mystique au lieu saint de la Vierge noire, à Rocamadour, le poussa à se reconvertir au catholicisme; son duo scénique avec le baryton Pierre Bernac était bien établi; et, concernant sa musique vocale, Éluard s’imposa comme un collaborateur prisé. De ces expériences naquit un créateur plus grave et plus dévoué, qui avait trouvé en Bernac un interprète tout aussi grave et dévoué, à même de donner voix à ce nouveau lyrisme idéaliste.

Le cycle Tel jour telle nuit compte parmi les plus grandes réalisations poulencquiennes de cette époque. Nullement découragé par de légères difficultés, le compositeur va au cœur des poèmes, où Éluard a mis ses expériences (voyages, rencontres, amitiés, rêves et, surtout, son amour pour sa femme Nusch). L’interprétation musicale de Poulenc aide à ouvrir une porte derrière laquelle Éluard, intellectuel apparemment brillant, se montre tel qu’en lui-même: un poète du peuple, prodigue chantre de l’amour, des beautés de la nature et de la fraternité humaine. La dernière mélodie de ce cycle, Nous avons fait la nuit, est l’une des plus grandes chansons d’amour de toute la musique française; le poème n’est que celui d’un homme expliquant une relation mais, illuminé par la musique de Poulenc, il revêt une portée universelle et révèle une profonde compréhension de la nature même de l’amour, mais aussi les moyens de son constant renouveau. Guère surprenant que le postlude, résumé du cycle, rappelle par sa puissance la fin d’un cycle moins optimiste mais tout aussi sincère: la Dichterliebe schumannienne.

extrait des notes rédigées par Graham Johnson © 1985
Français: Hypérion

Other albums featuring this work

Poulenc: The Complete Songs
CDA68021/44CDs Boxed set (at a special price)
Poulenc: Voyage à Paris
CDH55366
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