Chausson La Légende de Sainte-Cécile; La Tempête
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (Amedée-)Ernest Chausson
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 4/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 555323-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) Légende de Saint Cécile |
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer François Le Roux, Baritone French Radio Chorus Isabelle Vernet, Soprano Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Conductor Jean-Philippe Lafont, Baritone Laurence Dale, Tenor Marie-Ange Todorovitch, Soprano Orchestre de Paris Chamber Ensemble |
| (La) Têmpete |
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer
(Amedée-)Ernest Chausson, Composer Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Conductor Orchestre de Paris Chamber Ensemble |
Author: Lionel Salter
Admirers of Chausson’s songs, particularly the Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, will be familiar with the name of the poet Maurice Bouchor. For a three-act play he wrote (in somewhat inflated language) for a marionette theatre Chausson composed incidental music, consisting of 15 short numbers with some thematic interconnections. Predominantly slow, melancholy but also rapturous, they are expressively lyrical, with tinges both of archaism and of Wagnerism. Especially lovely is a cantique for unaccompanied cello followed by a soprano solo. Much of the music is cast for the angelic choir, represented in radiant tone (but not quite impeccable intonation) by female voices of the Radio France Chorus. Except for one number condemning a blasphemer, in which Chausson introduces a tam-tam, the scoring is delicate, for only strings (beautifully played here) and celesta: be it noted that Sainte Cecile was written in the same year as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, which is always credited with being the first to employ a celesta.
In fact Chausson had already used it four years previously in his incidental music to a French version of Shakespeare’s Tempest, for the same marionette theatre. It is a rather slighter score – nothing like as sparse in instrumentation, however, as stated by the note-writer, who couldn’t have been listening – but it contains several delightful numbers, including charming interludes in Acts 3, 4 and 5 which could well be adopted generally as a little suite. All the singers are excellent. The ditties for Stephano and Caliban (the baritones) and Ariel’s “Where the bee sucks” are unaccompanied, but “Come unto these yellow sands” (Dale) and the duet for Juno and Ceres (Todorovitch and Farman) are pearls that should rightly not have lain hidden until now.'
In fact Chausson had already used it four years previously in his incidental music to a French version of Shakespeare’s Tempest, for the same marionette theatre. It is a rather slighter score – nothing like as sparse in instrumentation, however, as stated by the note-writer, who couldn’t have been listening – but it contains several delightful numbers, including charming interludes in Acts 3, 4 and 5 which could well be adopted generally as a little suite. All the singers are excellent. The ditties for Stephano and Caliban (the baritones) and Ariel’s “Where the bee sucks” are unaccompanied, but “Come unto these yellow sands” (Dale) and the duet for Juno and Ceres (Todorovitch and Farman) are pearls that should rightly not have lain hidden until now.'
Chausson La Légende de Sainte-Cécile; La Tempête
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