The Young Debussy Darren Chase Tenor Mark Cogley Piano

t h e Y o u N g d e B u s s Y darren Chase tenor Mark Cogley piano C r e d i t s engineer: Louis Brown recorded at L. Brown Studios in New York Cover Photo of Daren Chase: David Wentworth Photo of Mark Cogley: Casey Fatchett www.albanyrecords.com TROY1221 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 © 2010 albany records made in the usa ddd waRning: cOpyrighT subsisTs in all Recordings issued undeR This label. 1 Beau soir (Paul Bourget) [2:25] t h e M u s i C 2 Paysage sentimentale (Paul Bourget) [3:20] 3 Voici que le printemps (Paul Bourget) [3:16] The Young Debussy comprises the songs composed by Claude Achille Debussy (1862-1918) before 4 Fleur des blés (André Girod) [2:32] his thirtieth birthday, but includes only those he thought were good enough to publish. (With these exceptions: the 1891 set Trois Poèmes de Verlaine could not be included for lack of space; the 1903 Cinq Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire Dans le jardin has been inserted in its place.) 5 Le balcon [7:41] the vocal writing in these songs varies, but in most of them there is the emphasis on the middle 6 harmonie du soir [4:23] and low range characteristic of much French vocal music. Therefore every downward transposition 7 Le jet d’eau [5:55] has the effect of thickening the texture and darkening the color Debussy had in mind. Darren Chase 8 recueillement [5:01] sings all of the songs in the composer’s original keys. 9 La mort des amants [3:37] in 1880 the 18-year-old Debussy began to supplement his piano lessons with composition stud- ies. The majority of his works over the next twelve years were vocal – choral pieces as well as mélodie 10 Nuit d’étoiles (théodore de Banville) [2:39] (French for art song; chanson means the other kind of song). In that year, he wrote three songs he did 11 Mandoline (Paul Verlaine) [1:39] not publish and a setting of a poem by Théodore de Banville; Nuit d’étoiles was published in 1882, ‘musique de Achille Debussy’ , and he indicated his continuing affection for it by re-publishing it 25 Deux Romances years later. It is a fragrant, well-shaped salon song and has been among the more popular items in t h e Y o u N g d e B u s s Y 12 romance: L’âme eevaporée [2:19] performance and recording. 13 Les cloches [2:26] darren Chase tenor Mark Cogley piano in 1881, Debussy befriended the Vasniers, a young couple, and for a few years Mme. Vasnier Ariettes Oubliées (Paul Verlaine) served as his muse, prompting him to compose dozens of songs for her coloratura soprano. While 14 C’est l’extase langoureuse [3:01] they are often interesting and imaginative (sometimes in bizarre ways), in the last analysis they are very 15 il pleure dans mon coeur [2:33] promising, rather mannered juvenilia. Debussy was finding himself and surely knew what he was doing 16 L’ombre des arbres [2:11] when he declined to publish most of them. 17 Chevaux de bois [3:25] in that year he wrote 15 songs (the most he would ever write in a single year). He eventually 18 green [2:19] published just one, Fleur des blés. The poem (by one André Girod) is sweetly romantic as is Debussy’s 19 spleen [2:33] setting, which has found a certain amount of favor among recording artists. The song was published in 1891 and there is no manuscript – I believe Debussy may have revised it somewhat. 20 Les angélus (grégoire Le Roy) [2:34] in 1882, Debussy turned twenty years old and wrote a dozen songs for Mme. Vasnier. Eleven of 21 dans le jardin (Paul Gravollet) [2:41] these efforts were not published but the twelfth, the effervescent Mandoline, became one of his most 22 La belle au bois dormant (e.V. Hypsa) [3:23] popular songs. The poem is by Paul Verlaine, the outlaw poet whose work Debussy would explore in depth over the next 22 years. The song was first published in a slightly revised version in 1890. There Fêtes Galantes I (Paul Verlaine) have been a great many recordings, from Nordica and Melba in Debussy’s lifetime to Schwarzkopf 23 en sourdine [2:59] and Fischer-dieskau in the ’60’s, and on to the present day. 24 Fantoches [1:22] 25 Clair de lune [3:10] total Time = 79:32 in 1883, Debussy wrote a total of six songs. The only one to be published was Paysage sentimen- Before quite finishing his Ariettes, Debussy had embarked upon a quite different cycle, the Cinq tale, with words by Paul Bourget, several of whose poems Debussy set over the next few years. It has Poèmes de Baudelaire. It has been noted that this music has some of the proto-Wagnerian breadth and a complex history: there is the original unpublished version, an obscure intermediate version (from texture associated with his friend Ernest Chausson. But Debussy’s artistic personality is now so strong 1891) and finally, the definitive version recorded here. This was part of a set published in 1902: Trois that the result is something new and special. For the performers, exploring this music, probing its Mélodies also includes Voici que le printemps and La belle au bois dormant. The songs have no connec- heights and depths, was one of the high points of making this record. tion except for the fact that the mature Debussy wanted to rescue them from oblivion. Contrasting the the poems and their dates are, in order: La balcon (January 1888), Harmonie de soir (January first and final version shows the uses of self-criticism: Debussy prunes and transforms what had been 1889), Le jet d’eau (March 1889), Recueillement (1889) and La mort des amants (1887). in 1907, mannered and disorganized. The song may be a neglected stepchild as far as performance goes, but it debussy orchestrated Le jet d’eau, and quite recently John Adams orchestrated four songs from the is a playful, subtle gem. set. The cycle was first published in a very limited edition in 1890; not until 1902 was it published for Beau Soir has no fixed date (there is no manuscript), but current musicology dates it to approxi- the general public. Le jet d’eau has long been a popular individual song and in recent years more artists mately 1884. (one reason is that the Bourget poem was published in book form the year before; another have taken up the challenge of the complete cycle. is the song’s rather sophisticated harmonic language.) Its richly romantic sentiment and simplicity have in 1890, debussy had a brief association with a local cabaret, which included among its members made it Debussy’s most popular song with both professionals and amateurs, with a plethora of record- a poet named H. V. Hypsa. Their one collaboration was on the subject of La belle au bois dormant; ings by artists ranging from Jascha Heifetz to Barbra Streisand. It was first published in 1891. coincidentally or not, Tchaikovsky’s great ballet on the same subject premiered that year. It is a real After 1884, Debussy’s artistic grasp became surer and there are no more of the songs he did not outlier among Debussy’s songs, with an old-fashioned (modified) strophic format, and it is, amazingly, think worthy of publication. He was moving to a new stage in his development, soon to manifest itself the only song on this album that does not end softly. Like a number of Debussy’s single songs, it is a in his first major work, the Ariettes Oubliées. In the course of completing that cycle, there were also neglected gem and it was first published in the 1902 set of Trois Mélodies. two more Paul Bourget settings, composed around 1886. Romance (L’âme évaporée) is one of his more 1891 saw the publication of several of Debussy’s older songs and one brand new one, Les angélus. popular songs, with its smoothly sensuous lyricism. The less well-known Les cloches is at least as fine, As in Les cloches, Debussy’s piano part evokes bell song with great subtlety under the singer’s plaint. with its tolling ostinato and dense rhythmic and melodic texture. The songs were published together this is one of the somewhat neglected songs. in 1891 under the title Deux Romances. in 1882, Debussy had composed settings of three Verlaine poems: En sourdine, Fantoches and in 1888, Debussy published the fruit of his early artistic maturity, a cycle he called simply Ariettes. Clair de lune, none of which he published. Almost ten years later (1891-92), he revisited the poems, (this was his first song publication since Nuit d’étoiles.) The six poems – cynical, erotic, despairing – composing entirely new settings of the first and the third. For Fantoches he revised the 1882 setting are by Paul Verlaine. The songs and their dates of composition are, in order: C’est l’extase langoureuse in the first half and composed an entirely new second half. In the resulting cycle, Fêtes Galantes I, (March 1887), Il pleure dans mon coeur (1885-87), L’ombre des arbres (January 1885), Chevaux de bois debussy refines his new language to sheer incandescence, foretelling the peak achievements of Pelléas (1885-87), Green (January 1886) and Spleen (1885-88).

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