1. Puisque j’ai mis ma lèvre (JMA) ...... [3.17] 2. Noël, Op. 43, No. 1 (ID) ...... [2.32] 3. En prière (ID) ...... [2.10] 4. La rançon, Op. 8, No. 2 (IB) ...... [2.18] 5. Seule!, Op. 3, No. 1 (IB) ...... [3.06] 6. Chanson d’amour, Op. 27, No. 1 (JMA) ...... [2.00] 7. L’absent [Sentiers où l’herbe se balance], Op. 5, No. 3 (IB) ...... [3.49] In sixty years of songwriting, between 1861 and 1921, Fauré’s craft understandably 8. Nocturne, Op. 43, No. 2 (ID) ...... [2.33] developed in richness and subtlety. But many elements remained unchanged: among them, 9. Larmes, Op. 51, No. 1 (JMA) ...... [2.11] 10. Les présents, Op. 46, No. 1 (LA) ...... [1.56] a distaste for pretentious pianism (‘Oh pianists, pianists, pianists, when will you consent to 11. Au cimetière, Op. 51, No. 2 (JMA) ...... [4.38] hold back your implacable virtuosity !!!!’ he wrote, to a pianist, in 1919) and a loving care for prosody – not infrequently he ‘improved’ on the poet for musical reasons. Above all, he La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61 (KW) remained his own man. Henri Duparc was a close friend, but his songs, dubbed by Fauré’s 12. I. Une sainte en son auréole ...... [2.17] pupil Ravel ‘imperfect but works of genius’, had only a passing impact on Fauré’s own. 13. II. Puisque l’aube grandit ...... [1.50] Where Duparc embraces the grand gesture, Fauré for the most part prefers the suggestion, 14. III. La lune blanche luit dans les bois ...... [2.25] the nuance. In this respect, if in no other, his music resembles that of Erik Satie: it tends to 15. IV. J’allais par des chemins perfi des ...... [1.52] speak to each of us singly in familiar tones. Therefore recording is an ideal medium for it, 16. V. J’ai presque peur, en vérité ...... [2.23] free of all the material distractions of dress, gesture or facial exercise. 17. VI. Avant que tu ne t’en ailles...... [2.42] 18. VII. Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été ...... [2.30] Fauré’s preference for suggestion and nuance may seem to sit uneasily with his choice of 19. VIII. N’est-ce pas?...... [2.26] 20. IX. L’hiver a cessé...... [3.01] Victor Hugo as the poet for his six earliest songs (one thinks of André Gide’s famous reply to question of who was France’s greatest poet: ‘Victor Hugo, hélas !’), but the composer, 21. Prison, Op. 83, No. 1 (SC) ...... [2.26] even at the age of sixteen, was careful over what he set. By 1861 he had been a pupil for 22. Vocalise 21 (AM) ...... [0.58] seven years at the École Niedermeyer in which set out primarily to train church 23. Pleurs d’or, Op. 72 (LA and JC) ...... [2.27] John Mark Ainsley (JMA) musicians. However, in that year Saint-Saëns joined the staff, bringing with him a breath 24. Vocalise 9 (LA) ...... [0.48] Lorna Anderson (LA) of modernist air nourished on such dangerous infl uences as Liszt and Wagner, and he and 25. C’est la paix, Op. 114 (LA) ...... [1.25] Isobel Buchanan (IB) Fauré became lifelong friends. John Chest (JC) L’horizon chimérique, Op. 118 (JC) Sarah Connolly (SC) Not that the Hungarian or the German show up in these early Fauré songs. His second 26. I. La mer est infi nie ...... [1.30] Hugo setting, ‘Puisque j’ai mis ma lèvre’, dates from 1862 and may well have been composed, 27. II. Je me suis embarqué ...... [2.16] Iestyn Davies (ID) like its predecessor ‘Le papillon et la fl eur’, in the dining room of the École Niedermeyer 28. III. Diane Séléné ...... [2.04] (AM) 29. IV. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés ...... [1.59] Kitty Whately (KW) ‘amid the aromas of cooking’. Although it was one of his six Hugo settings mentioned to

Total timings ...... [68.07] piano 3 the poet in a letter from his secretary in 1864, for some reason it never made its way into Harmony from now on was to be one of his deepest resources and we are already in the ‘wrong’ the early editions of Fauré’s songs, and so has tended to be neglected. The tonality, wavering key by the third line of verse one. Will he make it back again ? Of course he does, with the help between minor and major, refl ects the mixture of sadness and contentment in the poem: of the marking ‘senza rigore’, found nowhere else in his songs. In the words of Graham Johnson, the poet’s beloved is dead, but memories abide. ‘this is recherché music of the greatest subtlety that is only pretending to be simple.’

Fauré’s eighth and last Hugo setting, ‘L’absent’, was written, or at least completed on Although Fauré spent much of his early life as an organist and choirmaster in various 3 April 1871 and forms, together with ‘Seule !’ and ‘La rançon’, an undoubted response to churches, his religious sentiment, according to him, amounted merely to feeling that there the Franco-Prussian War in which Fauré himself served with distinction. As Jean-Michel was something beyond our earthly life. But as his Requiem plainly demonstrates, this did Nectoux has written, these songs are all ‘sombre in tone, and written in a medium or not hamper him in portraying in music what we may reasonably respond to as a kind of low tessitura and, of course, in minor keys. They are also contrapuntal in texture and the religious belief - an attempt, if you like, to know the unknowable. His song ‘Noël’ of 1885, piano parts have none of the seductive brilliance found in earlier mélodies. This is Fauré with its bells and twinkling stars, might in lesser hands have ended up as kitsch; but in severe mood.’ Not the least impressive feature of ‘L’absent’ is the way the interpolated here there is a tenderness and (again) a serenity which suggest that his ‘something beyond’ bars for piano solo continue and develop the sense of loss. In ‘Seule !’ the simplicity of the was nothing to be feared, even if the setting of the fi nal, challenging verse to different music piano part and the regularity of the four-bar phrasing imbue the song with a hymn-like acquires a curious gravitas. Like ‘Noël’, ‘En prière’ of 1890 is strictly speaking a religious seriousness; nor is Fauré afraid to resort to a strophic setting of the three verses, albeit with ‘cantique’ rather than a ‘mélodie’, but such a distinction should not deter singers from tiny rhythmic adjustments dictated by the text. Only in ‘La rançon’ is the opening severity performing this delicately suave song. fi nally dispelled by joy, art and love being prescribed as the two ideal fi elds of endeavour - not, as Nectoux well says, by any ‘seductive brilliance’ in the piano part, but with a feeling Paired rather curiously with this ‘Noël’ in Fauré’s op 43 is ‘Nocturne’, an entirely secular of great serenity that looks forward to the songs of Fauré’s old age. love song on a poem by Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. One explanation of the pairing might be that this song too explores serenity. Where ‘Chanson d’amour’ explored this feeling through By the very early 1880s, with the war and an abandoned marital engagement behind him, the medium of rhythm, ‘Nocturne’ not only does the same, the left hand playing more or Fauré was slowly beginning to make a name for himself, if within a fairly restricted circle, and less the same pattern throughout, but adds to this an adherence to a single bass note (the ‘Chanson d’amour’ of 1882 may be taken as a symbol both of his warm heart (never in doubt) tonic) for 35 of the song’s 47 bars. Such monotony can be rendered palatable only by an and a growing technical control. The song is a beautiful example of the interest Fauré can inventive harmonic palette, such as Fauré can always be relied on to provide, but when he generate within an absolutely regular rhythm in the piano part, here continuing for over 50 bars. does make his initial departure from the tonic bass note, it is, tellingly, on the word ‘nuit’.

4 5 Nectoux points out that the year of the composition of ‘Nocturne’, 1886, was also that After he had written the Cinq mélodies (the so-called “Venetian Songs”) in 1891, Fauré declared of Jean Moréas’s Manifesto of Symbolism and fi nds a similarity in its ‘incantatory aesthetic’ that he had “exhausted the musical possibilities of Verlaine”. Which only shows how little with Satie’s early piano pieces, as well as with Fauré’s own Requiem. The following year composers can sometimes see into the future, because in September of the following year he Fauré made his only other setting of verse by Villiers in ‘Les présents’, described by Graham embarked on this cycle of songs based on Verlaine’s collection La bonne chanson. In the event Johnson as having ‘something of the occult about it plus the languor of décadence’. It was he chose nine of the 21 poems Verlaine wrote for his fi ancée, Mathilde Mauté, and organised dedicated to Comte Robert de Montesquiou who was a leader of the decadent movement, them to make what he called “a suite, a story”. This story is told in three pairs of songs so sharply characterised by Gilbert and Sullivan in Patience, and certainly the song’s (nos. 1–2; 4–5; 7–8) between and after which nos. 3, 6 and 9 are landscape interludes, refl ecting circuitous harmonies are not the sort to be appreciated by the ‘profane crowd’. Verlaine’s preoccupation with the correspondances between Nature and the emotions.

Easy charm is also foresworn in the terrifying song ‘Larmes’, written in 1888 to a poem The work is truly a cycle in that three themes recur throughout. Two of these at least from the collection La mer by Jean Richepin, whose verse was noted for its exuberance are easily recognizable: the downward arching phrase in the opening bars of the piano part, and deliberately challenging nature. Whether or not the song mirrors unhappiness in the and the stepwise rising phrase (the so-called “Lydia” theme, from the song of that name) composer’s private life, which is possible, the chromatic harmony is the most extreme so far fi rst heard in the second song on the words “puisque voici l’aurore”. Around these themes, used by Fauré, emphasised by the traditionally tragic key of C minor. The melodic line too Fauré conjures up an astonishing variety of textures, giving the lie to any view of him as a is highly chromatic, and on the line ‘Elle répondra par la tourmente de fl ots hurleurs’ covers rather subfusc, monochrome composer, and in the seventh and last songs his delight in the a range of over one and a half octaves - if not a record for Fauré, then very close to one... arrival of summer and spring is utterly infectious. As to the harmonies, if not as extreme as The companion song to words by Richepin, ‘Au cimetière’ begins with the steady, simple in ‘Larmes’, they nonetheless caused considerable upset among his contemporaries. We’re crotchet chords that Fauré would continue to turn to over the years, here reminding us of told that Debussy found the songs needlessly complicated, while Fauré’s one-time teacher the contemporaneous Requiem and its frequent basis in plainsong. These chords symbolize Saint-Saëns thought his pupil had gone “completely mad”. On the other side, Marcel the solid earth of the cemetery, as opposed to the measureless, uncontrollable expanse of Proust adored the cycle, much preferring it to Fauré’s early songs; which, given Proust’s the sea, portrayed in the central verses where the vocal line is marked declamato. At the end, own taste for dense, symphonically constructed prose, is perhaps hardly surprising. Fauré, in one of his ‘improvements’ to the poetry he sets, goes beyond the poet’s repetition of the fi rst verse by adding the second, so that the song culminates on the wonderfully fi nal, Even these nine wonderful songs did not quite exhaust Verlaine’s musical possibilities, and in and singable phrase ‘de longs adieux’. December 1894 Fauré set an untitled poem as ‘Prison’ which, as the singer Betty Bannerman suggested, might even be read as a discreet pendant to La bonne chanson, referring to Verlaine’s

6 7 shooting of his lover Rimbaud and subsequent detainment in the Prison de Carmes, from the to the Dardanelles in 1915. He might then have been expected to greet victory and peace courtyard of which he could see the scene described in this poem. It may contain resonances with music worthy of the occasion. Sadly, this was not to be. As music critic of Le Figaro also from the composer’s own life, Graham Johnson reminding us that ‘this is the music he found himself forced in 1919 to set that journal’s prize-winning lines, ‘C’est la paix’, that Fauré’ composed as he contemplated his fi ftieth birthday, his “jeunesse” a thing of the described by him as a ‘horrible little poem’. He called the result ‘a small tour de force’, past’. The only song he wrote in the key of E fl at minor, its regular, doom-laden chords and which we may charitably interpret as meaning that the song was a good deal less horrible anguished harmonies make it one of Fauré’s very fi nest. than it might have been in less capable hands.

After a songless 1895, the following year Fauré composed a setting of Jean Richepin’s It is not given to every composer to end their songwriting career on an undisputed high. poem ‘Larmes’ which, since that was a title he had already used, he renamed ‘Pleurs But the four songs that make up L’horizon chimérique demonstrate unequivocally that the d’or’. It was the last of his few vocal duets, an unpretentious little song with harmonies claims of the young French composers of Les Six to ‘strip down’ their writing to essentials more seductive than taxing, most notably in the sequence on the words ‘Larmes d’extase, were shared, and many would say the results surpassed, by the 76-year-old maître. The poet, éplorement délicieux’, where fi ve successive chords pronounce or suggest fi ve different Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, died in action in 1914, leaving just 41 poems under the title keys. Pretentiousness is also lacking throughout Fauré’s church music, the generally smooth adopted by Fauré, which were published in 1920. The songs were dedicated to the baritone lines of the Requiem being part and parcel of this approach. Charles Panzera who gave their fi rst performance in 1922 and later made a fi ne recording of them. The harmonic twists and turns of Fauré’s middle period are now ironed out: all is When Fauré became director of the Paris Conservatoire in 1905, he took a particular clear and logical, and yet deeply moving and individual, so that while the narrow intervals interest in the teaching of singing. The two Vocalises on this disc, for the ladies’ examinations and frequent repeated notes in the vocal line might look like those of Debussy’s Pelléas, on 7 January 1908 and 5 May 1914, show what he was looking for in the accomplished the sound could not be more different. Many thousands of words would not be enough singer: clear articulation, agility and a smooth delivery. The deliberately awkward ending to express wonder at the cycle’s felicities. Let the magnifi cent fi nal peroration suffi ce: ‘Car of the fi rst and the tone and tuning of the unprepared high G at the end of the second were j’ai de grands départs inassouvis en moi’ - ‘For within me lie great unappeased departures’. among the points an examiner would be monitoring. A confession of regrets? Yes, but the music tells us more than that. In 1921 Fauré had three more years to live and the wonderful 13th Nocturne, the String Quartet and the Piano Trio In a Paris that remained, to some observers, curiously untouched by the war, Fauré still to write. Let us hope this confi rmed agnostic will allow us to say ‘Requiescat in pace’. remained anxious throughout about the safety of his younger son, Philippe who, as a liaison offi ce, often found himself in the front line, not least during the terrible Allied expedition © Roger Nichols, 2021

8 9 1 Puisque j’ai mis ma lèvre Since I’ve pressed my lips L’étoile qui guidait les mages, The star that led the Magi Victor Hugo (1802-1885) S’arrête enfin dans les nuages, Stops at last in the clouds, Et fait briller un nimbe d’or And casts a golden halo Puisque j’ai mis ma lèvre à ta coupe encore pleine; Since I’ve pressed my lips to your still brimming cup; Sur la chaumière où Jésus dort. Above the cottage where Jesus sleeps. Puisque j’ai dans tes mains posé mon front pâli; Since on your hands I’ve laid my pale brow; Puisque j’ai respiré parfois la douce haleine Since at times I have caught the sweet breath Alors, ouvrant ses yeux divins, Then, opening His divine eyes, De ton âme, parfum dans l’ombre enseveli; Of your soul, fragrance shrouded in the shade; L’enfant couché dans l’humble crèche, From His crib of fresh hay De son berceau de paille fraîche, The Child, lying in the humble manger, Puisqu’il me fut donné de t’entendre me dire Since I’ve been favoured to hear you utter Sourit aux nobles pèlerins. Smiles at the noble pilgrims. Les mots où se répand le cœur mystérieux; Words poured from a mysterious heart; Puisque j’ai vu pleurer, puisque j’ai vu sourire Since I’ve seen tears, since I’ve seen smiles, Eux, s’inclinant, lui disent: Sire, They, bowing down, address Him: Sire, Ta bouche sur ma bouche et tes yeux sur mes yeux; Your mouth on my mouth, your eyes on mine; Reçois l’encens, l’or et la myrrhe, Receive the incense, gold and myrrh, Et laisse-nous, ô doux Jésus, And allow us, gentle Jesus, Puisque j’ai vu briller sur ma tête ravie Since catching on my delighted face Baiser le bout de tes pieds nus. To kiss the tips of your naked feet. Un rayon de ton astre, hélas! voilé toujours; A ray of light from your star, still veiled alas! Puisque j’ai vu tomber dans l’onde de ma vie Since watching fall into the stream of my life Comme eux, ô peuple, incline-toi, Bow down like them, O people, Une feuille de rose arrachée à tes jours; A rose leaf from your days; Imite leur pieux exemple, Follow their devout example, Car cette étable, c’est un temple, For this stable is a temple, Je puis maintenant dire aux rapides années: I can now say to the swift years: Et cet enfant sera ton roi! And this Child shall be your king. Passez! passez toujours! je n’ai plus à vieillir! Roll on, roll ever on! I can age no more! Allez-vous-en avec vos fleurs toutes fanées; Away with you and your withered flowers; J’ai dans l’âme une fleur que nul ne peut cueillir! In my soul I’ve a flower that none can gather! 3 En prière In prayer Stéphan Bordèse (1847-1919) Votre aile en le heurtant ne fera rien répandre Should your wing jolt it, nothing will spill Du vase où je m’abreuve et que j’ai bien rempli. From the vessel where I drink and which I have filled. Si la voix d’un enfant peut monter jusqu’à Vous, If a child’s voice may rise up to You, Mon âme a plus de feu que vous n’avez de cendre! My soul has more fire than you have ashes! Ô mon Père, O Father, Mon cœur a plus d’amour que vous n’avez d’oubli! My heart has more love than you oblivion! Écoutez de Jésus, devant Vous à genoux, Hear the prayer of Jesus who kneels La prière! In prayer!

2 Noël Christmas Si Vous m’avez choisi pour enseigner Vos lois If You have chosen me to teach Your laws Victor Wilder (1835-1892) Sur la Terre, On earth, Je saurai Vous server, auguste Roi des rois, I shall serve You, august King of Kings, La nuit descend du haut des cieux, Night falls from the sky, Ô Lumière! O light! Le givre au toit suspend ses franges, Frost hangs its fringes along the roofs. Et, dans les airs, le vol des anges And the flight of angels in the sky Sur mes lèvres, Seigneur, mettez la verité On my lips, O Lord, place truth that is Éveille un bruit mystérieux. Creates a mysterious sound. Salutaire, Salutary, Pour que celui qui doute, avec humilité So that he who doubts may with humility Vous révère! Revere You.

10 11 Ne m’abandonnez pas, donnez-moi la douceur Do not abandon me, give me the kindness 5 Seule! Alone! Nécessaire, Required, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) Pour apaiser les maux, soulager la douleur, To ease pain, console sorrow La misère! And misery! Dans un baiser, l’onde au rivage In a kiss, the wave to the shore Dit ses douleurs; Voices its grief; Révélez-Vous à moi, Seigneur en qui je crois Reveal Yourself to me, Lord, in whom I believe Pour consoler la fleur sauvage, To console the wild flower Et j’espère: And hope: L’aube a des pleurs; Dawn has its tears; Pour Vous je veux souffrir et mourir sur la croix, For you I would suffer and die on the Cross, Le vent du soir conte sa plainte The evening breeze tells its sorrow Au Calvaire! On Calvary! Aux vieux cyprès; To the ancient cypress; La tourterelle au térébinthe The turtle-dove to the terebinth Ses longs regrets. Its endless regrets. 4 La rançon The ransom Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) Aux flots dormants, quand tout repose, To the sleeping waves, when all is quiet Hors la douleur, But pain, L’homme a, pour payer sa rançon, Man, that his ransom may be paid, La lune parle, et dit la cause The moon speaks, explaining why Deux champs au tuf profound et riche, Has two fields of soil, rich and deep, De sa pâleur. It is pale. Qu’il faut qu’il remue et défriche Which he must till and rake Ton dôme blanc, Sainte-Sophie, Your white dome, Santa Sophia, Avec le fer de la raison; With the blade of reason; Parle au ciel bleu, Speaks to the blue sky Et, tout rêveur, le ciel confie And, lost in dreams, the sky confides Pour obtenir la moindre rose, To grow the merest rose, Son rêve à Dieu. Its dream to God. Pour extorquer quelques épis, To reap but meagre ears of corn, Des pleurs salés de son front gris He must water them night and morn Arbre ou tombeau, colombe ou rose, Tree or tomb, dove or rose, Sans cesse il faut qu’il les arrose. With salt tears from his ashen brow. Onde ou rocher, Wave or rock, Tout, ici-bas, a quelque chose Everything here below L’un est l’Art, et l’autre l’Amour. One field is Art, the other Love. Pour s’épancher . . . Has something to pour out . . . – Pour rendre le juge propice, – To propitiate the judge Moi, je suis seule, et rien au monde But I am alone, and nothing on earth Lorsque de la stricte justice When the terrible day Ne me répond, Ever responds to me, Paraîtra le terrible jour, Of strict justice dawns, Rien que ta voix morne et profonde, Nothing but your deep and gloomy voice, Sombre Hellespont! Sombre Hellespont! Il faudra lui montrer des granges He will have to show him barns abrim Pleines de moissons, et des fleurs With harvested crops and flowers, Dont les formes et les couleurs Whose forms and colours gain 6 Chanson d’amour Love song Gagnent le suffrage des Anges. The approval of the seraphim. Armand Silvestre (1837-1901)

J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ton front, I love your eyes, I love your brow, Ô ma rebelle, ô ma farouche, O my rebel, o my wild one, J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ta bouche I love your eyes, I love your mouth Où mes baisers s’épuiseront. Where my kisses exhaust themselves.

12 13 J’aime ta voix, j’aime l’étrange I love your voice, I love the strange – Où donc est-il allé? – Dans l’ombre. – Where has he gone? – Into the shadow. Grâce de tout ce que tu dis, Charm of all you say, – Flots qui gémissez sur l’écueil, – Waves that moan against the reefs, Ô ma rebelled, ô mon cher ange, O my rebel, O my dear angel, D’où venez-vous? – Du bagne sombre. From where do you come? – The dark convict prison. Mon enfer et mon paradis! My inferno and my paradise. – Et qu’apportez-vous? – Un cercueil. – And what do you carry? – A coffin.

J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ton front, I love your eyes, I love your brow, Ô ma rebelle, ô ma farouche, O my rebel, o my wild one, 8 Nocturne Nocturne J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ta bouche I love your eyes, I love your mouth Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam (1838-1889) Où mes baisers s’épuiseront. Where my kisses exhaust themselves. La nuit sur le grand mystère Night on the great mystery J’aime tout ce qui te fait belle, I love all that makes you beautiful Entr’ouvre ses écrins bleus; Half-opens its blue caskets; De tes pieds jusqu’à tes cheveux, From your feet to your hair, Autant de fleurs sur la terre As many flowers on earth Ô toi vers qui montent mes vœux, O you the object of all my vows, Que d’étoiles dans les cieux. As stars in the sky. Ô ma farouche, ô ma rebelle! O my wild one, O my rebel. On voit ses ombres dormantes Its sleeping shadows are seen J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ton front, I love your eyes, I love your brow, S’éclairer à tous moments Lit at every instant, Ô ma rebelle, ô ma farouche, O my rebel, o my wild one, Autant par les fleurs charmantes As much by charming flowers J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ta bouche I love your eyes, I love your mouth Que par les astres charmants. As by charming stars. Où mes baisers s’épuiseront. Where my kisses exhaust themselves. Moi, ma nuit au sombre voile My own darkly veiled night N’a pour charme et pour clarté Has for charm and light 7 L’absent The absent one Qu’une fleur et qu’une étoile, But one flower and one star - Victor Hugo Mon amour et ta beauté! My love and your beauty!

– Sentiers où l’herbe se balance, – Paths of swaying grass, Vallons, coteaux, bois chevelus, Valleys, hillsides, leafy woods, 9 Larmes Pourquoi ce deuil et ce silence? Why this mourning and this silence? Jean Richepin (1849-1926) – Celui qui venait ne vient plus. –He who came here comes no more. Pleurons nos chagrins, chacun le nôtre. Let us mourn our sorrows, each his own. – Pourquoi personne à ta fenêtre, – Why is no-one at your window, Une larme tombe, puis une autre. One tear fails, another follows. Et pourquoi ton jardin sans fleurs, And why is your garden without flowers, Toi, qui pleures-tu? Ton doux pays, You, who do you mourn? Your sweet native land, Ô maison! où donc est ton maître? O house, where is your master? Tes parents lointains, ta fiancée. Your distant family, your betrothed. – Je ne sais pas, il est ailleurs. – I do not know: he is elsewhere. Moi, mon existence dépensée And I – my existence, wasted En vœux trahis. On vows betrayed. – Chien, veille au logis. – Pourquoi faire? – Dog, guard the home. – For what reason? La maison est vide à présent. The house is empty now. Pleurons nos chagrins, chacun le nôtre. Let us mourn our sorrows, each his own. – Enfant, qui pleures-tu? – Mon père. – Child, who is it you mourn? – My father. Une larme tombe, puis une autre. One tear falls, another follows. – Femme, qui pleures-tu? –L’absent. – Woman, who is it you mourn? – The absent one. Semons dans la mer ces pâles fleurs. Let us bestrew the sea with these pale flowers.

14 15 À notre sanglot qui se lamente To our sobbing lament Est mis Is laid Elle répondra par la tourmente It will reply with the storm Dans l’herbe et dans les chants. Amid the grass, amid the songs. Des flots hurleurs. Of howling waves. Il dort d’un bon sommeil He sleeps a good sleep, Pleurons nos chagrins, chacun le nôtre. Let us mourn our sorrows, each his own. Vermeil Crimson Une larme tombe, puis une autre. One tear falls, another follows. Sous le ciel radieux. Beneath the radiant sky. Peut-être toi-même, ô triste mer, Perhaps you yourself, O dismal sea, Tous ceux qu’il a connus, All those he has known Mer au goût de larme âcre et salée, That tastes of acrid and salty tears, Venus, Are come Es-tu de la terre inconsolée Are the inconsolable earth’s Lui font de longs adieux. To bid him a long farewell. Le pleur amer. Bitter weeping. À sa croix les parents Relatives at his cross, Pleurants Weeping 10 Les présents Gifts Restent agenouillés; Remain kneeling, Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam Et ses os, sous les fleurs, And his bones beneath the flowers De pleurs With tears Si tu demandes quelque soir If one evening you should ask Sont doucement mouillés. Are gently watered. Le secret de mon cœur malade, The secret of my sick heart - Je te dirai, pour t’émouvoir, To touch you, I shall relate Chacun sur le bois noir On the black wood all Une très ancienne ballade. A very ancient ballad! Peut voir Can see S’il était jeune ou non, If he was young or no, Si tu me parles de tourments, If you speak to me of torments, Et peut avec de vrais And can with true D’espérance désabusée, Of disillusioned hope, Regrets Regret J’irai te cueillir, seulement, I shall simply pick for you L’appeler par son nom. Call him by his name. Des roses pleines de rosée. Roses decked with dew! Combien plus malchanceux How much more unfortunate Si, pareille à la fleur des morts, If, like the flower of the dead Sont ceux Are they Qui fleurit dans l’exil des tombes, That blooms in the exile of tombs, Qui meurent à la mé, Who die at sea, Tu veux partager mes remords . . . You wish to share in my remorse . . . Et sous le flot profond And beneath deep waters Je t’apporterai des colombes. I shall bring you doves! S’en vont Drift Loin du pays aimé! Far from their beloved land!

11 Au cimetière In the graveyard Ah! pauvres, qui pour seuls Ah! poor souls! whose only Jean Richepin Linceuls Shroud Ont les goëmons verts Is the green seaweed, Heureux qui meurt ici Happy he who dies here Où l’on roule inconnu, Where they roll unknown, Ainsi Even Tout nu, Unclothed, Que les oiseaux des champs! As the birds of the fields! Et les yeux grands ouverts And with wide-open eyes! Son corps près des amis His body near his friends

16 17 12-20 La bonne chanson The good song Et comme, pour bercer les lenteurs de la route, And while, to ease the journey’s languid pace, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) Je chanterai des airs ingénus, je me dis I shall sing some simple airs, I tell myself Qu’elle m’écoutera sans déplaisir sans doute; That she will surely hear me without displeasure; 12 Une Sainte en son auréole 12 A Saint in her halo Et vraiment je ne veux pas d’autre Paradis. And truly I crave no other paradise.

Une Sainte en son auréole, A Saint in her halo, Une Châtelaine en sa tour, A Châtelaine in her tower, 14 L’heure exquise 14 Exquisite hour Tout ce que contient la parole All that human words contain Humaine de grâce et d’amour; Of grace and love; La lune blanche The white moon Luit dans les bois; Gleams in the woods; La note d’or que fait entendre The golden note of a horn De chaque branche From every branch Un cor dans le lointain des bois, In forests far away, Part une voix A voice breaks forth Mariée à la fierté tendre Blended with the tender pride Sous la ramée . . . Beneath the boughs . . . Des nobles Dames d’autrefois; Of noble Ladies of long ago; O bien-aimée. O my beloved. Avec cela le charme insigne And then - the rare charm D’un frais sourire triomphant Of a fresh, triumphant smile, L’étang reflète, The pool reflects, Éclos dans des candeurs de cygne Flowering in swan-like innocence Profond miroir, Deep mirror, Et des rougeurs de femme-enfant; And the blushes of a child-bride; La silhouette The silhouette Du saule noir Of the black willow Des aspects nacrées, blancs et roses, A nacreous sheen of white and pink, Où le vent pleure . . . Where the wind is weeping . . . Un doux accord patricien: A sweet patrician harmony - Je vois, j’entends toutes ces choses All these things I see and hear Rêvons, c’est l’heure. Let us dream, it is the hour. Dans son nom Carlovingien. In her Carolingian name. Un vaste et tendre A vast and tender 13 Puisque l’aube grandit 13 Since day is breaking Apaisement Consolation Semble descendre Seems to fall Puisque l’aube grandit, puisque voici l’aurore, Since day is breaking, since dawn is here, Du firmament From the firmament Puisque, après m’avoir fui longtemps, l’espoir veut bien Since hope, having long eluded me, would now Que l’astre irise . . . Iridescent with the sun . . . Revoler devers moi qui l’appelle et l’implore, Return to me and my imploring, Puisque tout ce bonheur veut bien être le mien, Since all this happiness will truly be mine, C’est l’heure exquise. Exquisite hour.

Je veux, guidé par vous, beaux yeux aux flammes douces, I shall, guided by your fair eyes’ gentle glow, Par toi conduit, ô main où tremblera ma main, Led by your hand in which I place my trembling hand, 15 J’allais par des chemins perfides 15 I walked along treacherous ways Marcher droit, que ce soit par des sentiers de mousses Walk straight ahead, on mossy paths Ou que rocs et cailloux encombrent le chemin; Or boulder-strewn and stony tracks; J’allais par des chemins perfides, I walked along treacherous ways, Douloureusement incertain, Painfully uncertain. Vos chères mains furent mes guides. Your dear hands guided me.

18 19 Si pâle à l’horizon lointain So pale on the far horizon Mais plutôt je ne veux vous voir, But I would sooner not see you – Luisait un faible espoir d’aurore; A faint hope of dawn was gleaming; L’avenir dût-il m’être sombre However dark the future might be Votre regard fut le matin. Your gaze was the morning. Et fécond en peines sans nombres, And full of untold grief – Qu’à travers un immense Espoir, Could I not, through an immense hope, Nul bruit, sinon son pas sonore, No sound, save his own footfall, N’encourageait le voyageur. Encouraged the traveller. Plongé dans ce bonheur suprême Immersed in this supreme happiness, Votre voix me dit: ‘Marche encore!’ Your voice said: ‘Walk on!’ De me dire encore et toujours, Repeat to myself again and again, En dépit des mornes retours, Despite bleak reversals, Mon cœur craintif, mon sombre cœur My fearful heart, my heavy heart, Que je vous aime, que je t’aime! That I love you, I love thee! Pleurait, seul, sur la triste voie; Wept, lonely along the sad road; L’amour, délicieux vainqueur, Love, that charming conqueror, 17 Avant que tu ne t’en ailles 17 Before you fade Nous a réunis dans la joie. Has united us in joy! Avant que tu ne t’en ailles, Before you fade, Pâle étoile du matin, Pale morning star, 16 J’ai presque peur, en verité 16 In truth, I am almost afraid – Mille cailles – A thousand quail Chantent dans le thym. – Are singing in the thyme. – J’ai presque peur, en verité, In truth, I am almost afraid, Tant je sens ma vie enlacé So much do I feel my life bound up Tourne devers le poète, Turn to the poet À la radieuse pensée With the radiant thoughts Dont les yeux sont pleins d’amour, Whose eyes are full of love, Qui m’a pris l’âme l’autre été, That captured my soul last summer, – L’alouette – The lark Monte au ciel avec le jour. – Soars heavenward with the day. – Tant votre image, à jamais chère, So deeply does your ever-dear image Habite en ce cœur tout à vous, Inhabit this heart that is wholly yours, Tourne ton regard que noie Turn your gaze drowned Ce cœur uniquement jaloux This heart, whose sole desire L’aurore dans son azur; In the blue of dawn; De vous aimer et de vous plaire; Is to love you and please you; – Quelle joie – What delight Parmi les champs de blé mûr! – Among the fields of ripened corn! – Et je tremble, pardonnez-moi And I tremble, forgive me D’aussi franchement vous le dire, For telling you so frankly, Puis fais luire ma pensée And make my thoughts gleam À penser qu’un mot, qu’un sourire To think that one word, one smile Là-bas, – bien loin, oh! bien loin! Yonder, far, ah far away! De vous est désormais ma loi, From you is henceforth law to me, – La rosée – The dew Gaîment brille sur le foin. – Glints brightly on the hay. – Et qu’il vous suffirait d’un geste, And that one gesture would suffice, D’une parole ou d’un clin d’œil, One word, one single glance, Dans le doux rêve où s’agite Into the sweet dream where my love Pour mettre tout mon être en deuil To plunge my whole being in mourning Ma mie endormie encor . . . Still sleeping stirs . . . De son illusion céleste. From its heavenly illusion. – Vite, vite, – Make haste, make haste, Car voici le soleil d’or. – For here’s the golden sun.

20 21 18 Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été 18 So, on a bright summer day it shall be 20 L’hiver a cessé 20 Winter is over

Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été: So, on a bright summer day it shall be: L’hiver a cessé: la lumière est tiède Winter is over, the light is soft Le grand soleil, complice de ma joie, The glorious sun, my partner in joy, Et danse, du sol au firmament clair. And dances up from the earth to the clear sky. Fera, parmi le satin at la soie, Shall make, amid the satin and the silk, Il faut que le cœur le plus triste cède The saddest heart must surrender Plus belle encor votre chère beauté; Your dear beauty lovelier still; À l’immense joie éparse dans l’air. To the great joy that fills the air.

Le ciel tout bleu, comme une haute tente, The sky, all blue, like a tall canopy, J’ai depuis un an le printemps dans l’âme For a year I have had spring in my soul, Frissonnera somptueux à longs plis Shall quiver sumptuously in long folds Et le vert retour du doux floréal, And the green return of sweet Floreal, Sur nos deux fronts qu’auront pâlis Above our two happy brows, grown pale Ainsi qu’une flamme entoure une flamme, Like flame encircling flame, L’émotion du bonheur et l’attente; With pleasure and expectancy; Met de l’idéal sur mon ideal. Adds an ideal to my ideal.

Et quand le soir viendra, l’air sera doux And when evening comes, the breeze shall be soft Le ciel bleu prolonge, exhausse et couronne The blue sky prolongs, heightens and crowns Qui se jouera caressant, dans vos voiles, And play caressingly about your veils, L’immuable azur où rit mon amour. The steadfast azure where my love smiles. Et les regards paisibles des étoiles And the peaceful stars looking down La saison est belle et ma part est bonne The season is fair and my lot is happy Bienveillamment souriront aux époux. Shall smile benevolently on man and wife. Et tous mes espoirs ont enfin leur tour. And all my hopes are at last fulfilled.

Que vienne l’été! que vienne encore Let summer come! Let autumn 19 N’est -ce pas? 19 Is it not so? L’automne et l’hiver! Et chaque saison And winter come too! Each season Me sera charmante, ô Toi que décore Will delight me, O you graced with N’est-ce pas? nous irons, gais et lents, dans la voie Is it not so? Happy and unhurried we’ll follow Cette fantaisie et cette raison! Imagination and good sense! Modeste que nous montre en souriant l’Espoir, The modest path where Hope directs us with a smile, Peu soucieux qu’on nous ignore ou qu’on nous voie. Little caring if we are neither known nor seen. 21 Prison Prison Isolés dans l’amour ainsi qu’en un bois noir, Isolated in love as in a dark wood, Paul Verlaine Nos deux cœurs, exhalant leur tendresse paisible, Our two hearts, breathing gentle love, Seront deux rossignols qui chantent dans le soir. Shall be two nightingales singing at eventide. Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit, The sky above the roof - Si bleu, si calme! So blue, so calm! Sans nous préoccuper de ce que nous destine With no thought of what Destiny Un arbre, par-dessus le toit, A tree, above the roof, Le Sort, nous marcherons pourtant du même pas, Has in store, we shall walk along together, Berce sa palme. Waves its crown. El la main dans la main, avec l’âme enfantine Hand in hand, our souls like those of children La cloche, dans le ciel qu’on voit, The bell, you see in the sky, De ceux qui s’aiment sans mélange, n’est-ce pas? Whose love is unalloyed, is that not so? Doucement tinte. Gently rings. Un oiseau sur l’arbre qu’on voit A bird, you see on the tree, Chante sa plainte. Plaintively sings.

22 23 Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est là, My God, my God, life is there, 25 C’est la paix Peace has come Simple et tranquille. Simple and serene. Georgette Debladis Cette paisible rumeur-là That peaceful murmur there Vient de la ville. Comes from the town. Pendant qu’ils étaient partis pour la guerre, As long as they were at the wars, On ne dansait plus, on ne parlait guère, We danced no more, we hardly spoke, Qu’as-tu fait, ô toi que voilà, O you, what have you done, On ne chantait pas. We did not sing. Pleurant sans cesse, Weeping without end, Mes sœurs, c’est la paix! La guerre est finie, My sisters, peace has come! The war is over. Dis, qu’as-tu fait, toi que voilà, Say, what have you done Dans la paix bénie, In this blessed peace, De ta jeunesse. With all your youthful days? Courons au devant de nos chers soldats. Let us run to meet our dear soldiers.

Et joyeusement, toutes, en cadence, And joyfully, keeping time, 23 Pleurs d’or Tears of gold Nous irons vers eux en dansant la danse We shall all move towards them, dancing Albert Samain (1858-1900) Qu’on danse chez nous. The dance we dance at home. Nous les aimerons! La guerre est finie. We shall love them! The war is over. Larmes aux fleurs suspendues, Tears clinging to flowers, Ils seront aimés, dans la paix bénie, They shall be loved in this blessed peace, Larmes aux sources perdues Tears from springs lost Sitôt leur retour. As soon as they return. Aux mousses des rochers creux; In the moss of hollowed rocks; Pour avoir chassé la horde germaine For having routed the German hordes, Larmes d’automne épandues, Tears shed by autumn, Ils auront nos cœurs, - au lieu de la haine They shall have our hearts – instead of hate, Larmes de cors entendues Tears from horns sounding Ils auront l’amour. They shall have love. Dans les grands bois douloureux; In great doleful forests;

Larmes des cloches latines, Tears of church bells, 26-29 L’horizon chimérique The elusive horizon Carmélites, Feuillantines . . . Of Carmel and Feuillant convents . . . Jean de la Ville de Mirmont (1886-1914) Voix des beffrois en ferveur; Devout belfry voices; 26 La mer est infinie 26 The sea is boundless Larmes des nuits étoilées, Tears of starlit nights, Larmes des flûtes voilées Tears of muffled flutes La mer est infinie et mes rêves sont fous. The sea is boundless and my dreams are wild. Au bleu du parc endormi; In the blue of the sleeping park; La mer chante au soleil en battant les falaises The sea sings in the sun, as it beats the cliffs, Et mes rêves légers ne se sentent plus d’aise And my light dreams are overjoyed Larmes aux grands cils perlées, Pearly tears on long lashes, De danser sur la mer comme des oiseaux soûls. To dance on the sea like drunken birds. Larmes d’amantes coulées A beloved’s tears flowing Jusqu’à l’âme de l’ami; To her friend’s soul; Le vaste movement des vagues les emporte, The waves’ vast motion bears them away, La brise les agite et les roule en ses plis; The breeze ruffles and rolls them in its folds; Larmes d’extase, éplorement délicieux, Tears of rapture, delicious weeping, Jouant dans le sillage, ils feront une escorte Playing in their wake, they will escort the ships, Tombez des nuits! Tombez des fleurs! Tombez des yeux! Fall at night! Fall from the flowers! Fall from these eyes! Aux vaisseaux que mon cœur dans leur fuite a suivis. Whose flight my heart has followed.

24 25 Ivres d’air et de sel et brûlés par l’écume Drunk with air and salt, and stung by the spume 29 Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés 29 Ships, we shall have loved you De la mer qui console et qui lave des pleurs, Of the consoling sea that washes away tears, en pure perte to no avail Ils connaîtront le large et sa bonne amertume; They will know the high seas and the bracing brine; Les goëlands perdus les prendront pour des leurs. Lost gulls will take them for their own. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte; Ships, we shall have loved you to no avail; Le dernier de vous tous est parti sur la mer. The last of you all has set sail on the sea. Le couchant emporta tant de voiles ouvertes The sunset bore away so many spread sails, 27 Je me suis embarqué 27 I have embarked Que ce port et mon cœur sont à jamais déserts. That this port and my heart are forever forsaken.

Je me suis embarqué sur un vaisseau qui danse I have embarked on a ship that reels La mer vous a rendus à votre destinée, The sea has returned you to your destiny, Et roule bord sur bord et tangue et se balance. And rolls and pitches and rocks. Au delà du rivage où s’arrêtent nos pas. Beyond the shores where our steps must halt. Mes pieds ont oublié la terre et ses chemins; My feet have forgotten the land and its ways; Nous ne pouvions garder vos âmes enchaînées; We could not keep your souls enchained, Les vagues souples m’ont appris d’autres cadences The lithe waves have taught me other rhythms, Il vous faut des lointains que je ne connais pas. You require distant reaches unknown to me. Plus belles que le rythme des chants humains. Lovelier than the tired ones of human song. Je suis de ceux dont les désirs sont sur la terre. I am of those who have land-locked desires. À vivre parmi vous, hélas! avais-je une âme? Ah! did I have the heart to live among you? Le souffle qui vous grise emplit mon cœur d’effroi, The wind that elates you fills me with fright. Mes frères, j’ai souffert sur tous vos continents. Brothers, on all your continents I have suffered. Mais votre appel, au fond des soirs, me désespère, But your night summons makes me despair, Je ne veux que la mer, je ne veux que le vent I want only the sea, I want only the wind Car j’ai de grands départs inassouvis en moi. For within me are mighty, unsated departures. Pour me bercer comme un enfant, au creux des lames. To cradle me like a child in the trough of the waves.

Hors du port qui n’est plus qu’une image effacée, Far from the port, now no more than a faded image, Translations by Richard Stokes Les larmes du départ ne brûlent plus mes yeux. Tears of parting no longer sting my eyes. © from Graham Johnson’s Gabriel Fauré: Je ne me souviens pas de mes derniers adieux . . . I can no longer recall my final farewells . . . The Songs and their Poets (Ashgate, 2009) Ô ma peine, ma peine, où vous ai-je laissé? O my sorrow, my sorrow, where have I left you?

28 Diane, Séléné 28 Diana, Silene

Diane, Séléné, lune de beau métal, Diana, Silene, moon of beautiful metal, Qui reflètes vers nous, par ta face déserte, Reflecting on us, from your deserted face, Dans l’immortel ennui du calme sidéral, In the eternal tedium of sidereal calm, Le regret d’un soleil dont nous pleurons la perte. The regret of a sun whose loss we lament.

Ô lune, je t’en veux de ta limpidité, O moon, I begrudge you your limpidity, Injurieuse au trouble vain des pauvres âmes, Mocking the fruitless commotion of wretched souls, Et mon cœur, toujours las et toujours agité, And my heart, ever weary and ever uneasy, Aspire vers la paix de ta nocturne flamme. Longs for the peace of your nocturnal flame.

26 27 JOHN MARK AINSLEY Her numerous recordings reflect her love for chamber music and include The Fairy Queen under Harry Christophers, Haydn Masses under Richard Hickox, a disc of Portuguese Love Songs John Mark Ainsley has appeared with the world’s leading orchestras, with the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and for Hyperion she has recorded Britten Folksong settings including the London, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco Symphony with Malcolm Martineau, Handel’s L’Allegro with Robert King and is an artist on Graham Johnson’s orchestras, the London, , , Rotterdam and New York complete Schubert Edition. She performs as part of this five-album set of the complete Poulenc Philharmonic Orchestras, and with conductors including Sir Colin songs, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau and has similarly, recorded a disc of Debussy songs for Davis, , Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Sir Roger Hyperion, again accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. Lorna is also an artist on the ‘Decades’ series Norrington, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Solonen, Sir and recorded by the Vivat label. Claudio Abbado. In he has sung Don Ottavio (Glyndebourne Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival and Royal Opera, Covent Garden); the ISOBEL BUCHANAN title role in Samson (Netherlands Opera); Grimoaldo (); Jupiter Isobel Buchanan was born in and won a scholarship to The Royal Semele (San Francisco Opera); Bajazet Tamerlano and the title role in Idomeneo ( Festival); Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1971. Whilst there, she attained Captain Vere Billy Budd (Glyndebourne Festival); Henze’s L’Upupa () and Phaedra her Diplomas for teaching and performing, won The Governors’ Recital (Berlin Festival); and Skuratov in Janácˇek’s From the House of the Dead at the , Vienna and Prize for Singing and was named Student of the Year 1974. Aix-en-Provence Festivals, La Scala and Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. The following year, she auditioned for and Joan He has recorded extensively for Signum, Philips Classics, Decca, EMI, Sutherland who offered her a three-year contract to sing with the and , covering the baroque and classical repertoire, German Lied, English song, Australian Opera Company in Sydney. She made her debut as Pamina in French Melodies and American musicals. His recording of Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge with to great acclaim and she went on to sing the role in many the Nash Ensemble was nominated for a Gramophone Award. of the great opera houses of the world. Other roles with the AO included Fiordiligi, The Countess, Zerlina, Micaela, Norina, Gilda, Amelia, Helena LORNA ANDERSON [A Midsummer Night’s Dream] and Blanche [Dialogues of the Carmelites]. Isobel made her British debut at Glyndebourne in 1978 singing the role of Pamina in the Lorna Anderson was born in Glasgow and studied initially at the RSAMD famous Cox/Hockney production of Die Zauberflöte and returned there to repeat the role in 1980. with Patricia MacMahon before winning a postgraduate scholarship to the In 1981, she sang La Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Sir Peter Hall and was privileged to RCM. While still a student, she won a number of awards and competitions repeat the role for the 50th anniversary of the company in 1984. She also returned to sing Dorabella and has gone on to enjoy a busy and varied career, appearing in opera, before taking time out to bring up her two young daughters. concert and as a recitalist all over the world. She made her debut with The in , conducted by , who As a renowned performer of the baroque and classical repertoire was so impressed that he offered her concerts in the Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Symphony in particular, she has sung as a soloist with all the major orchestras and Hall, Chicago. Other roles have included The Governess in The Turn of the Screw for Paris, Cologne ensembles, large and small, in the field including The Orchestra of the and Munich, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Ruggiero Raimondi in Monte Carlo and James Age of Enlightenment, Les Arts Florissants, The Sixteen, The English Morris in Sydney. Concert, The King’s Consort, The London Classical Players, La Chapelle Royale and the Academy Isobel lives in Bath, where she teaches privately. She gives masterclasses and workshops of Ancient Music under conductors which include William Christie, Harry Christophers, throughout the UK and acts as external examiner for the Music Colleges in London. Robert King, Trevor Pinnock, Philippe Herreweghe, Richard Egarr and Christopher Hogwood. 28 29 JOHN CHEST Garden; the Composer [Ariadne auf Naxos] and Clairon [Capriccio] at The , New York; Orfeo [Orfeo ed Euridice] and the title role in The Rape of Lucretia at Bayerische Staatsoper, American baritone John Chest has sung at major opera houses throughout Munich; the title role in Giulio Cesare and Phèdre [Hippolyte et Aricie] for the Glyndebourne Festival; Europe and the United States. He studied at the Chicago College of Brangäne [Tristan und Isolde] for The Royal Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Gran Teatro del Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, held apprenticeships with Santa Fe

© Andrey Stoycher Liceu in Barcelona and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden; the title role in and Sesto [La Opera and the Chicago Opera Theater and took part in the prestigious Merola clemenza di Tito] at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Phèdre [Hippolyte et Aricie] at Opéra national Opera Programme. He is a graduate of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische de Paris; the title role in Ariodante for the Dutch National Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper and Staatsoper and a former member of the ensemble at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Fricka [Das Rheingold & Die Walkure] for The Royal Opera and the Bayreuth Festspiele. She has also Recent highlights include his house debuts with San Francisco Opera appeared frequently with Scottish Opera, and Opera North and is particularly [title role Billy Budd] and Glyndebourne Festival Opera [Pelléas Pelléas associated with the English National Opera. et Mélisande]; and his role debut as Heathcliff in Bernard Hermann’s She has appeared in recital in London, New York, Boston, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, San Wuthering Heights [Opéra national de Lorraine]. Francisco, Atlanta, Stuttgart; at the BBC Proms, the Incontri in Terra di Siena La Foce and at the Other operatic engagements include Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro [Opernhaus Zürich, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, and Oxford Lieder Festivals. She is regularly partnered by Opera Philadelphia, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Nederlandse Reisopera]; Marcello La bohème Eugene Asti, , Malcolm Martineau and . [Washington National Opera and Semperoper Dresden]; Guglielmo Così fan tutte [Staatsoper In concert she has performed at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg, and Tanglewood Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Bayerische Staatsoper]; Valentin Faust [Teatro Real Madrid, festivals, and she is a frequent guest at the BBC Proms where, in 2009, she was a memorable guest soloist Deutsche Oper Berlin and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse]; title role Don Giovanni and Fritz Die tote at the Last Night. She appears regularly with many of the world’s great orchestras under conductors Stadt [Angers Nantes Opera]; Belcore L’elisir d’amore and Ned Keene [Den Norske such as , Sir , Sir Mark Elder, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Vladimir Opera]; title role Billy Budd, Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Ford Falstaff, Silvio Pagliacci and Figaro Il barbiere Jurowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, , and Sir Simon Rattle. Sarah Connolly has recorded di Siviglia [Deutsche Oper Berlin]; and Nick Carraway The Great Gatsby [Semperoper Dresden]. prolifically and twice been nominated for a Grammy Award. She was made a DBE in the 2017 Equally passionate about art song, Chest made his debut with pianist Marcelo Birthday Honours, having previously been made a CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours. In 2011 Amaral in 2013 and returned for a second recital in 2018. He has also recently given recitals at the she was honoured by the Incorporated Society of Musicians and presented with the Distinguished Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opéra de Lille and Paris Philharmonie. Musician Award. She is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2020 Singer Award. He is the winner of the 2010 Stella Maris International Vocal Competition and was a finalist in the 2017 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and the 2011 Queen Sonja International Music Competition. He is a recipient of a Richard Tucker Music IESTYN DAVIES Foundation Career Grant. After graduating in Archaeology and Anthropology from St John’s College, Cambridge, Iestyn Davies studied singing at the Royal Academy

SARAH CONNOLLY of Music, London. © Chris Sorensen An esteemed Handelian, he has delighted audiences globally with his Born in County Durham, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly studied © Christopher Pledger vocal agility in roles such as Orlando, Rinaldo, Ottone [Agrippina] and David piano and singing at the , of which she is now a Fellow. [Saul]. His intelligent and considered interpretations have led to fruitful Her repertoire in opera ranges from Monteverdi, Handel and Gluck collaborations with Thomas Adés, George Benjamin and Nico Muhly. to Wagner, Strauss and Britten and particular highlights include Dido Iestyn received an Olivier Award nomination for singing the role of [Dido and Aeneas] at Teatro alla Scala, Milan and The Royal Opera, Covent 30 Farinelli in Farinelli and the King opposite Mark Ryalnce at the Globe 31 Theatre. The production was subsequently performed in the West End and on New York’s Broadway. In 1997 Ann Murray was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the National University On the opera stage he has appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne of Ireland, in 1998 she was made a Kammersängerin of the and in 1999 an Festival Opera, English National Opera, La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Chicago Lyric Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. In concert, his Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the appearances have included la Scala Milan, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Zurich Tonhalle, Théâtre British Empire. In 2004 she was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit. des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Barbican in London, Lincoln Centre New York and the BBC Proms. An acclaimed recitalist, with repertoire ranging from Dowland to Clapton, he is a regular guest KITTY WHATELY at Carnegie Hall, New York and has curated residencies at both the Wigmore Hall and Saffron Hall. Among his accolades are a Grammy Award, three Gramophone Awards for solo recital recordings, the Kitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist of the Year, and the 2013 Critics’ Circle Awards for Exceptional of Music and Drama, and the International Opera School of the Royal Young Talent [Singer]. In 2017 he was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to music. College of Music. Having won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, she attended the prestigious Academy of the Verbier Festival where she appeared as Cherubino [Le ANN MURRAY nozze di Figaro] and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Ann Murray was born in and studied with Frederick Cox at As a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013 to 2015 she made the Royal Manchester College of Music. She has established close links recordings with the BBC orchestras, commissioned a new song cycle from with both the English National Opera, for whom she has sung the title Jonathan Dove, and made several appearances at the BBC Proms. roles in Handel’s Xerxes and Ariodante and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and On the operatic stage she has recently sung Isabella [Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights] and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have Kate [Owen Wingrave] at Opéra national de Lorraine, in Nancy and Grange Park Opera, Paquette included Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina, Octavian, and [Candide] at Bergen Nasjonale Opera and The Grange Festival, Mother / Other Mother in the new productions of L’Enfant et les Sortileges, Ariadne auf Naxos, Idomeneo, world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Coraline, produced by The Royal Opera at the Barbican, Mitridate, Re di Ponto, Cosi fan Tutte, Mosé in Egitto, and Giulio Cesare. Dorabella [Così fan tutte] at Opera Holland Park, Nancy [Albert Herring] at The Grange Festival, and Much sought after as a concert singer, she has sung with the Orchestre Hermia [A Midsummer Night’s Dream] at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as well as in Bergen and Beijing. de Paris under Kubelík, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sawallisch, the Berlin Philharmonic She has appeared in Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over in Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Orchestra under Muti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Solti, the Royal Concertgebouw Bruges, and Lisbon, and further sung Rosina [Il barbiere di Siviglia] and Stewardess [Flight] at Opera Orchestra under Haitink and in the Musikverein, Vienna under Sawallisch and Harnoncourt. She Holland Park, Dorabella with English Touring Opera, and Ippolita / Pallade [Cavalli’s Elena] at sings in Great Britain with the leading orchestras, at the BBC Proms [where she has sung at both the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. First and Last Nights] and at the major festivals. In high demand as a recitalist and concert artist, she made her début with the Berliner Ann Murray’s recital appearances have taken her to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dresden, Philharmoniker singing Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and has sung with most of the Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, London, Dublin, the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich and Salzburg UK’s major orchestras, in repertoire such as Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream Festivals and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. Her discography reflects not only of Gerontius, De Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, her broad concert and recital repertoire but also many of her great operatic roles, including Purcell’s and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Kitty Whately has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Dido under Harnoncourt, Dorabella under Levine, Cherubino under Muti, Hansel under Colin Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder, and Buxton festivals. Davis, Sextus under Harnoncourt and Donna Elvira under Solti. 32 33 MALCOLM MARTINEAU Malcolm Martineau was born in Edinburgh, read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music. Recognised as one of the leading accompanists of his generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers including Sir All works recorded in All Saints’ Church, , Dame , Olaf Bar, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, East Finchley, London, UK, except where indicated , , Thomas Hampson, , , Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Solveig 31st January 2014 Track 24 Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame , Christopher Maltman, 24th May 2015 Track 22 Karita Mattila, Lisa Milne, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von 9 October 2015 [St Silas, Chalk Farm] Tracks 4, 5, 7 Otter, Joan Rodgers, , , Frederica von 17 June 2017 Tracks 10, 25 27 June 2017 Tracks 2, 3, 8 Stade, Sarah Walker and . 16th to 18th June 2018 Tracks 1, 6, 9, 11 to 20 He has presented his own series at the Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series and Decade 13 Dec 2018 Tracks 23, 26 to 29 by Decade – 100 years of German Song broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the 2 April 2019 [Wathan Hall, Hammersmith] Track 21 complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Châtelet, Paris; Producer & Recording Engineer – Andrew Mellor the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and [except Track 21 – Produced by Mark Brown] the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Recording Assistant – Claire Hay Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix- en- Editing – Andrew Mellor & Claire Hay Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg festivals. Design & Artwork - Darren Rumney Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Language Consultants – Florence Daguerre de Hureaux and Aurélia Jonvaux Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI); recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); Amanda Roocroft (for Onyx); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and ; P2021 The copyright in this recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd. the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion; the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche C2021 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd. Grammophon; the complete Poulenc songs for Signum Records; the complete Mendelssohn songs Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from for Champs Hill Records; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with Florian Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in Boesch for Onyx. any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. He was a given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. Malcolm was the Artistic SignumClassics, Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival. Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com 34 35 CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN Customer SignumClassics MAGENTA YELLOW Catalogue No. BLACK Job Title: SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD681 OPEE SONGS VOL.4 COMPLETE 1. Puisque j’ai mis ma lèvre (JMA) ...... [3.17] 11. Au cimetière, Op. 51, No. 2 (JMA) ...... [4.38] 2. Noël , Op. 43, No. 1 (ID) ...... [2.32] 12-20 La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61 (KW) ...... [21.26] 3. En prière (ID) ...... [2.10] 21. Prison, Op. 83, No. 1 (SC) ...... [2.26] 4. La rançon, Op. 8, No. 2 (IB) ...... [2.18] 22. Vocalise 21 (AM) ...... [0.58] FAURÉ 5. Seule!, Op. 3, No. 1 (IB) ...... [3.06] 23. Pleurs d’or, Op. 72 (LA and JC) ...... [2.27] 6. Chanson d’amour, Op. 27, No. 1 (JMA) ...... [2.00] 24. Vocalise 9 (LA) ...... [0.48]

FAURÉ 7. L’absent [Sentiers où l’herbe se balance], Op. 5, No. 3 (IB) ...[3.49] 25. C’est la paix, Op. 114 (LA) ...... [1.25] 8. Nocturne, Op. 43, No. 2 (ID) ...... [2.33] 26-29 L’horizon chimérique, Op. 118 (JC) ... [7.49] 9. Larmes, Op. 51, No. 1 (JMA) ...... [2.11] 10. Les présents, Op. 46, No. 1 (LA) ...... [1.56] Total timings ...... [68.07] COMPLETE SONGS VOL.4

LC15723

Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, SIGCD681 Perivale, Middlesex UB6 7LQ, . SIGCD681 P2021 Signum Records DDD C2021 Signum Records www.signumrecords.com 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 06812 0 SIGNUM CLASSICS