A remarkable Franco-Québecois effort landed in my lap recently: A five-CD box containing the full, official collection of mélodies (art songs) by Francis Poulenc, in honour of this year’s 50th anniversary of his death.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
The box set, released by Montreal’s ATMA Classique, is a massive undertaking, featuring six singers, one hardworking pianist (the golden Olivier Godin) and multiple recording sessions at the Domaine Forget.
It also represents the very best and very worst of the classical music world, innocuously packaged into a not-very-attractive two-colour package.
The best first: How wonderful that such a comprehensive tribute to a French composer has come out of Quebec, featuring largely Canadian talent.
Of the six singers — sopranos Pascale Beaudin, Hélène Guilmette and Julie Fuchs, mezzo Julie Boulianne and baritones Marc Boucher and François Le Roux — only Fuchs and Le Roux are from France.
The five CDs have been intelligently programmed, both in terms of ordering and how the voices have been apportioned according to each singer’s natural vocal timbre and singing style.
The box set also represents a convenient, one-stop reference for singers, collaborative pianists, teachers and librarians.
On the other hand, why this need to be completist about Poulenc?
The French composer, born in 1899, started writing in his teens. There are 170 of his mélodies on these five CDs. Poulenc was an excellent pianist, creating works where melody and accompaniment are inextricably bound in attitude as well as in performance. But not all of these songs — most setting poems by Poulenc’s many poetical friends — are masterworks.
The people involved in this project treat every single work as a masterpiece. They are beautifully sung and pianist Godin deserves a medal of some sort for his magnificent work here.
In an equalized set like this, okay songs sit alongside the so-so and the fabulous. Is that fair to Poulenc himself?
The young Francis was always showing off, and being cleverly ironic in ways a hipster of 2013 might relate to very nicely. A couple of his early mélodies go a long way. His later work is much more subtle, emotionally honest and harmonically seductive.
I realise that, in the best of all possible worlds, the patient listener will sort through all 170 songs to curate a playlist of his or her favourites, then return a year or two later to add and delete according to a new whim.
But in the real world, I fear that these catch-all boxes gather more dust than playing time, becoming the bookshelf prizes of collectors and specialists rather than living, well-loved members of the household/workplace/commuting soundtrack.
And, for people naturally inclined to fear art music, a set like this is yet more proof of a world that sometimes exists more to glorify itself than to attract fresh ears and eyes.
I also object to the complete set because of personal taste. I may like one singer but not another, yet still feel forced to choose the whole.
In my case, Le Roux is a source of aggravation.
Here is a venerable artist who has done so much to deepen our appreciation of Poulenc’s music, He is also someone who should no longer be singing outside of his teaching studio and/or shower. The difficult, sublime and rarely performed song cycle La Fraîcheur et le feu (the Chill and the Fire) is Le Roux’s, for example, rendered with undeniable artistry but a less-than-perfect voice.
I wouldn’t want to listen to it again, but it should be listened to again and again.
In short, Francis Poulenc: Intégrale des mélodies pour voix et piano has made me grit my teeth as much as it has made me smile. The result? A splitting headache.
For more information, click here.
This is a promotional video released by ATMA:
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
