Kosma Songs - Le Roux
For this repertoire the elegance of these performances may surprise some, but this is nevertheless a haunting and poetic collection, blending well-known with neglected [song] songs
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 10/2000
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Catalogue Number: 460050-2DH
Author:
Joseph Kosma (1905-1969) is still not a well-known name, even to devotees of French song. However, nearly everybody knows the song that gives this disc its title – Les feuilles mortes (‘Autumn leaves’). Its genesis helps to tell Kosma’s story. The tune first appeared as one of the themes in his score for a ballet, Le rendez-vous, choreographed by Roland Petit in 1945. Marcel Carne, the film director for whom Kosma had already worked on Les visiteurs du soir and Les enfants du paradis, was so taken by the atmosphere of the ballet that he adapted it as a film, Les portes de la nuit. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin, but they withdrew from the project; and the song, although not heard at all in the film, was recorded by its young lead, Yves Montand, and helped to make him into one of France’s greatest post-war stars. (It was later featured by Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and many others.)
Kosma was born in Hungary, studied in Berlin and came to Paris in 1933. For the first few years he lived in great poverty, earning his living as a bar pianist, but a meeting with the poet Jacques Prevert led to his first film work – a song for Odette Florelle in Jean Renoir’s Le crime de Monsieur Lange. The songs Kosma-Prevert songs are among the jewels of the 20th-century French repertory. Francois Le Roux includes several others, Barbara (made famous in the 1950s by Les Freres Jacques), Le jour et la nuit, which he sings as a duet with himself, and the longest and most dramatic, Rue de Seine. This extraordinary poem, punctuated by the words ‘Pierre dis-moi la verite’, has all the atmosphere of one of the greatfilm-noir classics, with its image of the rainy street at night and the whispered lovers’ conversations.
Among the other French poets that Kosma set, there are songs by Francis Carco (Jesus la Caille), Raymond Queneau (Si tu t’imagines) and Jean-Paul Sartre (Rue des Blancs-Manteaux). All have taken their place in the literature of Parisian chanson, but what makes this disc so fascinating is the chance it offers to hear these songs in the context of some of Kosma’s other, until now totally neglected, music. There are two short suites for piano, Danse des automates and Chants du ghetto, and a charming song-cycle, Sans coup ferir, to poems by the Dadaist Tristan Tzara.
From his Berlin period comes Les soutiers, a French translation of a poem by Theodor Plivier, an anarchist and radical writer who draws on his own experiences working in the boiler room of a ship. This was one of the earliest Kosma songs to be recorded, by Marianne Oswald in 1936. She had one of the harshest voices among the Gitanes-croaky school of singers. It is sometimes a bit surprising to hear these songs sung with such elegant precision by Le Roux, but the whole haunting record is packed with beautiful melodies and wonderful poetry.
Jeff Cohen has made some evocative arrangements to add a little accordion- and violin-tinged sentimentality where needed, and he plays all of Kosma’s piano parts with just the right feel for the mixture of mystery and regret that is the essence of his music.'
Kosma was born in Hungary, studied in Berlin and came to Paris in 1933. For the first few years he lived in great poverty, earning his living as a bar pianist, but a meeting with the poet Jacques Prevert led to his first film work – a song for Odette Florelle in Jean Renoir’s Le crime de Monsieur Lange. The songs Kosma-Prevert songs are among the jewels of the 20th-century French repertory. Francois Le Roux includes several others, Barbara (made famous in the 1950s by Les Freres Jacques), Le jour et la nuit, which he sings as a duet with himself, and the longest and most dramatic, Rue de Seine. This extraordinary poem, punctuated by the words ‘Pierre dis-moi la verite’, has all the atmosphere of one of the great
Among the other French poets that Kosma set, there are songs by Francis Carco (Jesus la Caille), Raymond Queneau (
From his Berlin period comes Les soutiers, a French translation of a poem by Theodor Plivier, an anarchist and radical writer who draws on his own experiences working in the boiler room of a ship. This was one of the earliest Kosma songs to be recorded, by Marianne Oswald in 1936. She had one of the harshest voices among the Gitanes-croaky school of singers. It is sometimes a bit surprising to hear these songs sung with such elegant precision by Le Roux, but the whole haunting record is packed with beautiful melodies and wonderful poetry.
Jeff Cohen has made some evocative arrangements to add a little accordion- and violin-tinged sentimentality where needed, and he plays all of Kosma’s piano parts with just the right feel for the mixture of mystery and regret that is the essence of his music.'
Kosma Songs - Le Roux
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.