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Track(s) taken from CDA66856

Rêverie

First line:
Puisqu'ici-bas toute âme
composer
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
1851
author of text
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Les voix intérieures (No 11)

François Le Roux (baritone), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: January 1996
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: January 1997
Total duration: 3 minutes 1 seconds

Cover artwork: À l'ombres des bosquets chante un jeune poète. Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891)
Reproduced by permission of The Wallace Collection, London / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘This is the most resounding blow yet to be struck for the mélodies of Saint-Saëns … Le Roux is one of the most charismatic performers of our time … this is certainly one of the best things he has done so far. A double welcome for performers and rare repertory’ (Gramophone)

‘Musical jewels surface with delightful consistency in this 27-song recital. An absorbing and revelatory disc’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘There's hardly a dud among these 30-or-so songs on this well filled, perfectly recorded disc, an ideal accompaniment to a hot summer evening’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Another immensely pleasant recital from Hyperion, both in content and performance. [François Le Roux] is establishing himself as the leading French baritone of the day’ (Classic CD)

«François Le Roux est l'interprète prédestiné. Son intelligence des mots, son sens de la juste inflexion font ici merveille» (Diapason, France)

'Apoya magnificamente al baritono, firmando entre ambos un trabajo auténticamente digno de conocerse. Sonido exemplar' (CD Compact, Spain)
Another youthful song (1851) with a touch of real inspiration about it. It has a delicacy and a feeling which suggest that Saint-Saëns knew some of the Schumann songs at this early stage of his life. Indeed many of his early mélodies seem to have been influenced by Lieder. At the same time there is a family resemblance to those songs of Gounod where an exquisite melodic line unfolds on a background of gently throbbing quavers, seemingly anonymous but in reality gently steering the song in whatever harmonic direction the composer chooses. There is a certain stiffness here as well as faults in prosody which betray the hand of a youngster, but otherwise this is a distinguished effort.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1997

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