The Berlioz songs

[Sean]

Victoria de los Angeles was never as widely Known as other star-famous singers of her generation. She was not italian, didn't belong to the german-viannese school, had not a born french accent and never married a powerful british producer. And neither she had a powerful voice nor a nightingale register or ability. All she had was an immense talent made with warmness and intelligence.

For me, in spite of mentioned "references" like Janet Baker or Anne Sofie Von Otter (or even Regine Crespin, Eleanor Steber or Suzanne Danco) Victoria de los Angeles portrays the Berlioz's Nuits d'Eté with a unique character and intimacy. We may listen to her magic with Munch and the BSO (complete "cycle") or in a live performance (only melodies I,II,VI ) with Schwartz and the BBCSO.

Yes indeed; I know her from her Canteloube selections, all purity and accuracy, and vulnerability.

[knight66]

I am surprised at the idea that she is not very well known. She certainly is here and her EMI disography is extensive and holds a number of performances against which othrs are measured.

I have her Berlioz with Munch. It certainly has its delights and her French sounds excellent. She has a natural plagency to her voice and it is a lovely performance. I still would put some others above it, but it is certainly worth acquiring.

Mike

[zamyrabyrd]

Te Kanawa in "Nuits d'été" is also very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKsjLujDrQ

I don't know if anyone else found the Spectre of the Rose to be a strange song to get used to singing. At first, I felt the words didn't fit the music or vice versa. Don't know if Berlioz had this music in mind for something else and then fit it to the words. (Is this blaspheme?)

ZB

[karlhenning]

Time to scare up the Barzun . . . .

[zamyrabyrd]

Time to scare up the Barzun . . . .

I actually read Darwin, Marx and Wagner. If Berlioz and the Romantic Century is good, I'll try to scare it up. Meanwhile if this not OT, the Memoirs of Berlioz is terrific. Some say even better in French.

The Villanelle fits the words completely.  I just thought, maybe, perhaps maybe, B had the music lying around before fitting it to the words of the Spectre. But composers wouldn't do a thing like that, would they???

ZB
ZB

[jochanaan]

...But composers wouldn't do a thing like that, would they???

Oh no!  Never!  Perish the thought!  Didn't you know that every note in Bach's 200+ cantatas was completely original?

[Tsaraslondon]

I don't know if anyone else found the Spectre of the Rose to be a strange song to get used to singing. At first, I felt the words didn't fit the music or vice versa. Don't know if Berlioz had this music in mind for something else and then fit it to the words. (Is this blaspheme?)

ZB

On the contrary, I studied French Literature, and in particular the poetry of Theophile Gautier at college, and I have always considered Berlioz's setting of le Spectre de la Rose to be a perfect evocation of the poem's vivid Romantic imagery. It is quite possible, I suppose, that the tune is one he had already composed, but its waltz rhythm is certainly a suitable backdrop to the events of the poem. Furthermore words and music combine to marvellous effect in the section beginning "O toi qui de ma mort fut cause". Berlioz creates a wonderful effect in the accompaniment here, with the dancing woodwind when the rose says he will come and dance on the girl's windowledge every night, followed by the stark statement of "ni messe, ni de profundis" . And what could be more wondrous than the way voice and orchestra unite in ever mounting ecstasy as the rose arrives from paradise?
The last verse is no less expressive, the rose making here quite a grand expression of love, before gradually dying away to let the girl sleep.
Not strictly a cycle, "Les Nuits D'Ete" has always been one of my favourite collections of orchestral songs. I have 7 versions in my collection (Baker (3 different versions), Crespin, De Los Angeles, Steber and David Daniels). I enjoy them all, but I think only Baker, particularly with Barbirolli and Giulini really brings out the greatness of Le Spectre de la Rose.

Another wonderful Baker performance here (with Herbert Blomstedt conducting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzvqX_phcE. If you enjoy this, there are links to all the other songs performed live.

[zamyrabyrd]

Hi Tsaras,

I get your point and perhaps I don't know enough French to be able to judge how the words fit the melody. And the music is evocative in the way the scenes from Romeo and Juliet are. It's a kind of stylized waltz, not 3/4 but 9/8, that may be more wistful.

But there are places that bothered me, and still do, like the "ni messe ni De Profundis". Maybe it's where it lies, on the passaggio for a soprano, maybe that is why a mezzo like Janet Baker can handle it better. 

Also the quasi recitative: "ce leger parfum est mon ame" always presented difficulties of scansion like the above. And the end managing the "vont jalouser" where there is a B-A and then a descent of a 6th into a scarcely manageable part of the voice. But again, probably a lower type can handle these better.

ZB

[Tsaraslondon]

Hi Tsaras,

I get your point and perhaps I don't know enough French to be able to judge how the words fit the melody. And the music is evocative in the way the scenes from Romeo and Juliet are. It's a kind of stylized waltz, not 3/4 but 9/8, that may be more wistful.

But there are places that bothered me, and still do, like the "ni messe ni De Profundis". Maybe it's where it lies, on the passaggio for a soprano, maybe that is why a mezzo like Janet Baker can handle it better. 

Also the quasi recitative: "ce leger parfum est mon ame" always presented difficulties of scansion like the above. And the end managing the "vont jalouser" where there is a B-A and then a descent of a 6th into a scarcely manageable part of the voice. But again, probably a lower type can handle these better.

ZB

ZB,

I can imagine that it would lie rather low for a soprano. Indeed the song is given to a mezzo (Josephine Veasey) in Colin Davis's multi singer version on Philips. In that version, the songs are desugnated thus:

Villanelle - Tenor
Le spectre de la rose - Mezzo
Sur les lagunes - Bass
Absence - Soprano
Au cimetiere - Tenor
L'ile inconnue - Soprano.

Incidentally, the single voice versions usually require transpositions of some of the songs.

[zamyrabyrd]

Another wonderful Baker performance here (with Herbert Blomstedt conducting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzvqX_phcE. If you enjoy this, there are links to all the other songs performed live.

Though a somewhat older clip (1964) than the above (1972), the orchestra is more singer-friendly, the strings delicate and wistful. Régine Crespin is very convincing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxlchhfkC1I&feature=related

One of the comments sums up perfectly what I feel about this performance:
The text enunciated simply and with complete expressivity, the phrasing full of fantasy and rêverie, without alien emphases.

I always feel that listening to Crespin is a lesson in French diction.

ZB