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Track(s) taken from CDA67133/4

Ronde gauloise

First line:
J'ai vu la fille
composer
1862
author of text

Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: March 2001
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: July 2002
Total duration: 1 minutes 55 seconds

Cover artwork: L'Intrigue Nocturne. Gaston de Latouche (1854-1913)
Sotheby’s Picture Library
 

Reviews

‘[A] real treasure of a treasury’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘I cannot begin to tell you what delights await you on these discs … irresistible gems of melody, wit and tenderness. The enterprise has clearly been a labour of love for all involved’ (The Sunday Telegraph)

‘Here is something so joyous and heart-warming that it's difficult to know where to start … anyone with a love of French music and poetry will find this a knock-out pleasure’ (International Record Review)

‘Adorable indeed … these songs steal into the heart. This is a set made for a lifetime's listening and enjoyment’ (The Times)

‘Both CDs are packed with gems, most of them rarities … a three-star issue for Chabrier's adorable music, Johnson's de luxe documentation and Lott's delightful singing’ (The Sunday Times)

‘[Chabrier’s] 43 gorgeous songs find ideal interpreters on these two discs; the voices are beautifully limpid and the phrasing is exquisite’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘There are major discoveries to be made here’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘If you like French song this album is a treasure trove’ (Financial Times)

‘Quite a serious treat for aficionados of the great French master especially as the performances by sopranos Lott and McGreevy are totally flawless and delivered with great charm and confidence throughout … Hugely enjoyable’ (AdLib)

‘The splendid group of artists here assembled get to the heart of every piece’ (Musical Opinion)

‘This superbly-produced set of his complete melodies should be welcomed by all’ (Classics Today)
Chabrier uses this strange little poem (it suggests a Gallic version of the young miller’s enthusiasm in Die schöne Müllerin) exactly as if it was an opera text, and so it is – a set-piece that would have done very well (backed up by dancers) as an interlude in many an opera of the time. Once again we hear Chabrier’s fondness for the folksy drone of the bourdon. And this piece really does insist on those open-fifth basses – it is a veritable stomp in 2/4 of which any Apache warrior might be proud, but in fact it is a bourrée from the Auvergne composed by one of that region’s favourite sons. The right-hand figurations suggest oboes and bassoons, or older and more rustic instruments.

An element of time-travel is surely intended here – that much-honoured pastime for French composers of evoking the music of earlier times in a spirit of pastiche. It is in the same spirit of exploration that Chabrier composed his opera Le Roi malgré lui. He remains in the tonic key for long stretches (31 bars without a change of bass chord) with resolute lack of embarrassment. In another musician’s hands such a piece might have sounded dull, but this composer’s zest for life, and his infectious response to antique dance rhythms, shines through. Chabrier’s España is rightly famous because of his rhythmic exuberance, but this composer did not need Spanish music to engage his gift for rhythmic vitality. The common ground between Ronde gauloise and España is surely folk music. This subject was neither fashionable nor much studied at the time (it was Canteloube who was to become famous through his arrangements of folk songs from the Auvergne) but it is surely one of the important sources of Chabrier’s musical personality. It was Chabrier himself who wrote ‘Je rhythme ma musique avec mes sabots d’auvergnat’ – ‘I give rhythm to my music with the sound of my Auvergnat clogs’.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2002

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