MADEMOISELLE - Première Audience Unknown Music of NADIA BOULANGER DE 3496 1 DELOS DE 3496 NADIA BOULANDER DELOS DE 3496 NADIA BOULANDER MADEMOISELLE – Première Audience Unknown Music of NADIA BOULANGER SONGS: Versailles* ♦ J’ai frappé ♦ Chanson* ♦ Chanson ♦ Heures ternes* ♦ Le beau navire* ♦ Mon coeur* ♦ Doute ♦ Un grand sommeil noir* ♦ L’échange ♦ Soir d’hiver ♦ Ilda* ♦ Prière ♦ Cantique ♦ Poème d’amour* ♦ Extase* ♦ La mer* ♦ Aubade* ♦ Au bord de la route ♦ Le couteau ♦ Soleils couchants ♦ Élégie ♦ O schwöre nicht* ♦ Was will die einsame Thräne? ♦ Ach, die Augen sind es wieder* ♦ Écoutez la chanson bien douce WORKS FOR PIANO: Vers la vie nouvelle ♦ Trois pièces pour piano* • • MADEMOISELLE - PREMIÈRE AUDIENCE MADEMOISELLE - PREMIÈRE AUDIENCE WORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO: Trois pièces WORKS FOR ORGAN: Trois improvisations ♦ Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands Nicole Cabell, soprano • Alek Shrader, tenor Edwin Crossley-Mercer, baritone • Amit Peled, cello François-Henri Houbart, organ • Lucy Mauro, piano A 2-CD Set • Total Playing Time: 1:48:27 * World Premiere Recordings DE 3496 ORIGINAL ORIGINAL DIGITAL © 2017 Delos Productions, Inc., DIGITAL P.O. Box 343, Sonoma, CA 95476-9998 (800) 364-0645 • (707) 996-3844 [email protected] • www.delosmusic.com MADEMOISELLE – Première Audience Unknown Music of NADIA BOULANGER CD 1 (54:12) ‡ 4. Was will die einsame Thräne? (2:32) ‡ 5. Ach, die Augen sind es wieder* (2:09) SONGS † 6. Écoutez la chanson bien douce (6:03) † 1. Versailles* (3:05) † 2. J’ai frappé (1:59) WORKS FOR PIANO ‡ 3. Chanson* (1:26) 7. Vers la vie nouvelle (4:30) ‡ 4. Chanson (2:02) Trois pièces pour piano* (3:22) † 5. Heures ternes* (2:49) 8. Pièce No. 1 in D Minor (1:05) † 6. Le beau navire* (3:04) 9. Pièce No. 2 in D Minor (1:26) † 7. Mon coeur* (3:05) 10. Pièce No. 3 in B Minor (0:51) § 8. Doute (2:47) § 9. Un grand sommeil noir* (2:02) WORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO † 10. L’échange (3:24) Trois pièces (8:33) † 11. Soir d’hiver (3:40) 11. Modéré (3:14) † 12. Ilda* (3:29) 12. Sans vitesse et à l’aise (2:21) † 13. Prière (3:38) 13. Vite et nerveusement rythmé (2:58) ‡ 14. Cantique (2:03) ‡ 15. Poème d’amour* (3:50) WORKS FOR ORGAN † 16. Extase* (2:36) Trois improvisations (11:11) † 17. La mer* (2:53) 14. Prélude (5:22) § 18. Aubade* (2:00) 15. Petit Canon (2:32) § 19. Au bord de la route (2:18) 16. Improvisation (3:57) § 20. Le couteau (1:57) 17. Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands (7:18) CD 2 (54:15) † 1. Soleils couchants (2:24) * World Premiere Recordings † 2. Élégie (3:30) ‡ 3. O schwöre nicht* (2:03) Total Playing Time: 1:48:27 2 † Nicole Cabell, soprano Amit Peled, cello ‡ Alek Shrader, tenor François-Henri Houbart, organ § Edwin Crossley-Mercer, baritone Lucy Mauro, piano “Nothing is better than music; when it takes quiry in 2013 from pianist Lucy Mauro, whose us out of time, it has done more for us than suggestion struck a resonant chord with me for a we have the right to hope for: it has broad- number of reasons. As the director of Delos, I’m ened the limits of our sorrowful life, it has lit thrilled, both personally and professionally, that up the sweetness of our hours of happiness we can help bring Mademoiselle’s own music by effacing the pettinesses that diminish us, to light, at last. One hearing convinced me that bringing us back pure and new to what was, singers and art song enthusiasts would be espe- what will be, what music has created for us. cially excited about the songs, thirteen of which are receiving world premiere recordings. “In music everything is prolonged, every- thing is edified, and when the enchantment I first met Nadia Boulanger in the summer of has ceased, we are still bathed in its clari- 1955, when I was her student at the American ty; solitude is accompanied by a new hope Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. Her between pity for ourselves — which makes gray-white hair was drawn back into an ascetic us more indulgent and more understanding bun, and her eyes burned with the intensity of — and the certitude of finding something her devotion to music. She listened carefully as again, that which lives forever in music.” I played through piano works I was preparing — Nadia Boulanger, from the May for some competitions and pointed out a few 1919 issue of Le Monde Musical • quoted in musical connections she thought I might have The Tender Tyrant, Nadia Boulanger: A Life missed. She asked me many questions in her Devoted to Music by Alan Kendall French-accented English, and then said, to my delight, “You will go far!” But a couple of weeks he above quote represents the essence of later, without warning, I was stricken with para- the legendary Nadia Boulanger’s message lytic polio. And since polio targets those neu- Tto all who had the privilege of knowing romuscular areas most highly developed and and working with her, as I once did. It express- most strenuously in use immediately before the es the passion that drove “Mademoiselle,” as attack, the paralytic virus had destroyed my en- everyone called her, to be an inspired teacher, tire pianistic neuromuscular structure. and was the foundation of the high standards for which she was celebrated internationally. This Suddenly, I had become a worry to Mademoi- unique album of Mademoiselle’s unknown and selle rather than a student under her guidance. seldom-heard compositions began with an in- She began acting as my pro tem guardian, even 3 sending her own doctor to assess the damage call from him during one of our sessions). But along with the medical staff at the American since she was known by many to be a stern Hospital in Paris. She communicated by ca- taskmaster, holding everyone to the highest ble and phone with my parents in Detroit and standards, I suspected that she was applying her suggested a place to recuperate. Once I was strongest criticism to her own compositions. She able, with assistance, to get to her apartment spoke lovingly of her teacher Gabriel Fauré, and at 36 rue Ballu – an address revered to this day when the time came for me to leave Paris, gave by many a classical musician – she invited me me a personal, autographed copy of his 13th there for some special study sessions. Nocturne, and asked me to stay in touch. It was the kindest, most reassuring, and inspira- It was in late 1970, some fifteen years later, when tional thing anyone could have done. First, she Mademoiselle and I met again. By then, against would make sure that I was comfortable, care- all odds, I had found a way to reconstruct a pia- fully arranging cushions so that I could be in a no-playing apparatus and was able to tour once semi-reclining position. Then she would sit at the again as a concert pianist. A European tour took piano and ask what I would like to “work on.” In me to Paris, where Mademoiselle came to hear those memorable sessions, we explored togeth- me play at the Salle Gaveau. Our emotional re- er the wonders of late Beethoven and other ma- union after the performance said it all. jor piano works, discussing structural and tonal relationships. I clung to our sessions — to the Little did I know that a few years later I would be opportunity to “live inside” great music — de- invited to record for Delos, the then-new Amer- spite my enormous loss. Over those months, I ican label, nor that I would eventually become learned of her devotion to her younger sister, involved in the “other side of the microphone” Lili, who had died in her early 20s, and who had work of recording production. Amelia Haygood probably been the source of Mademoiselle’s (1919-2007), Delos founder and my dear friend, special sensitivity to a seriously ill young person. loved the stories about Mademoiselle and would have been excited and honored, as I am, to be Mademoiselle made it clear to me that she releasing this special world premiere collection of considered Lili the talented composer in the Mademoiselle’s deeply affecting compositions. family. She was self-deprecating about her own — Carol Rosenberger early compositions, almost as if they had been a youthful folly. Since she had been the revered teacher of some of the greatest 20th-century Discovering Nadia Boulanger’s beautiful music and composers, I wondered at her dismissal of her creating this tribute to such a legendary musician own work. Here were people like Igor Stravinsky has involved the enthusiastic support of several asking her opinion or advice (she took a phone 4 people, including Alexandra Laederich of the Na- NOTES ON THE PROGRAM dia and Lili Boulanger International Center in Paris; Carol Rosenberger at Delos; Stephen Schmidt, pi- Upon hearing the almost entirely unknown mu- anist and conductor as well as a former student sic of Nadia Boulanger revealed in this release, of Boulanger; and Michael Benchetrit of Columbia one could only wish that “Mademoiselle” hadn’t Artists Management (who happened to grow up stopped composing. If only she had listened near Boulanger’s famous rue Ballu home). to none other than Gabriel Fauré, her former teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, when she With the aid of my university (West Virginia Univer- visited him many years later. She recounted that sity) and state research grants, this exciting project he said to her, “I’m not sure you did the right included not only recording Boulanger’s music, thing in giving up composition.” We at Delos but also transcribing eleven of her unpublished can only agree with him ..