Chansons Françaises
Wolfgang Holzmair
Label
Decca
Catalogue No.
4817502
Barcode
00028948175024
Format
1-CD
About

A BRAND NEW RECORDING FROM WOLFGANG HOLZMAIR.

‘For me,’ Wolfgang Holzmair once remarked, ‘the song is a continuation of speech – a higher form of expressing words and thoughts.’ Over the course of three decades, the Austrian baritone has been true to his own belief in a stream of recitals and recordings of the Lieder, chanson and art-song repertoire. As recently as 2012, his album of Mahler’s songs from ‘Des knaben Wunderhorn’ was welcomed in Gramophone for his superb word-painting, ‘replacing sheer vocal power with more Lieder-friendly qualities of agility, precision and nuance. Poetic narrative is everywhere apparent.’

Such qualities lend distinction to his brand new album of ‘Chansons françaises’ released on Eloquence. Recorded in Vienna in 2012, Holzmair is partnered here by the Russian pianist Maria Belooussova who specialised in chamber-music partnerships with renowned instrumentalists and singers, among them Ivry Gitlis and Joseph Silverstein. Holzmair’s personal selection focuses on the high-noon of the French art-song tradition in the latter half of the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth, moving between the exquisite melancholy of Théophile Gautier as set by Berlioz (in ‘Les Nuits d’été’) and Duparc and the pastis-dry wit of Alexandre Arnoux who found his musical match in Jacques Ibert (‘Chansons de Don Quichotte’).

Holzmair also encompasses the visionary sensibility of Faure in ‘L’Horizon chimérique’, the sinuous opulence of Ernest Chausson (setting Gautier again in ‘Les Papillons’) and the folky simplicity of the’ Trois chansons de France’ by Debussy. Alongside an undoubted high-point in the entire French song repertoire (Ravel’s last completed work, ‘Don Quichotte à Dulcinée’), Holzmair has also unearthed a genuine rarity in the person of Eugène Anthiome (1836–1916) whose two songs recorded here for the first time belong to the Parisian salon, sweet and suave in the manner of Reynaldo Hahn.

TRACK LISTING / ARTISTS

HECTOR BERLIOZ
Three songs from ‘Les Nuits d’été’

ERNEST CHAUSSON
Le Colibri
Les Papillons
Sérénade Italienne

JACQUES IBERT
Chanson à Dulcinée (Chansons de Don Quichotte)

MAURICE RAVEL
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée

JACQUES IBERT
Chanson de la mort (Chansons de Don Quichotte)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Deux romances sur la poésie de Paul Bourget
Trois chansons de France

HENRI DUPARC
Phidylé
Lamento
La vie antérieure
Deux melodies

EUGÈNE ANTHIOME
Deux melodies

GABRIEL FAURÉ
Les Berceaux
L’Horizon chimérique, Op. 118

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Maria Belooussova, piano

NEW RECORDINGS OF FRENCH SONGS

Track previews
Les nuits d'été, Op. 7, H. 81: No. 1: Villanelle
Trois chansons de France, L. 102: 2. La grotte
L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118: 3. Diane, Séléné
L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118: 2. Je me suis embarqué
L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118: 1. La mer est infinie
Three Melodies for Voice and Piano, Op. 23: 1. Les berceaux
Deux mélodies: 2. Mignonne, puisque c'est l'automne
Deux mélodies: 1. Papillon bleu
La vie antérieure
Lamento
Phidylé
Trois chansons de France, L. 102: 3. Rondel II: Pour ce que Plaisance est morte
Trois chansons de France, L. 102: 1. Rondel I: Le temps a laissié son manteau
Les nuits d'été, Op. 7, H. 81: No. 4: Absence
Deux Romances, L. 79: 2. Les cloches
Deux Romances, L. 79: 1. L'ame évaporée
Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte: 4. Chanson de la mort de Don Quichotte
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84: No. 3: Chanson à boire
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84: No. 2: Chanson épique
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84: No. 1: Chanson romanesque
Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte: No. 2: Chanson à Dulcinée
Sérénade italienne, Op. 2, No. 5
Les Papillons, Op. 2, No. 3
Le Colibri, Op. 2 No. 7
Les nuits d'été, Op. 7, H. 81: No. 6: L'île inconnue
L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118: 4. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés
Recording information

Executive Producer: Vincent Piron
Balance Engineer: Alexander Grün (Studio Tonal, Vienna)
Recording Location: Studio Tonal, Vienna, Austria, 29 March–1 April 2012