Les Nuits d'ete

[knight66]

I have about a dozen recordings of this piece, not all to hand. I have been listening to Jessye Norman with Colin Davis and the LSO from 1979.

Jessye Norman is a weakness for me, I am generally happy listening to her sing....whatever. Here the voice is in peak condition. However, I don't regard this version as one to go at the top of anyone's shopping list.

Jessye can be prone to 'the epic approach'. Here we get it in spades. The first song pressages the approach, slow and dragging; no lift. There is also insufficient detail and a bit of a bland feeling. The stage is set, she simply settles herself comfortably and gorgeously for the duration.

It almost works for a couple of the slower songs. But instead of them casting a spell, as in the similarly timed live Giulini version with Baker; here the slowness is a deadening factor rather than focusing you into the interior of the songs. The poetry is not characterised, the accompaniment bland.

Really it is fairly boring though beautifully vocalised in excellent French. It is as though filtered through a haze of middle period Wagner. I read about five years ago that she had signed a contract to re-record it. Needless to say, it has not happened, won't now happen and you need to look elsewhere for her, and indeed Davis's best work.

Mike

[George]

I have the Kiri Te Kanawa/Barenboim recording.

My friend loves this work, I think this one was his favorite.

[knight66]

That is a fine disc George. Certainly preferable to Norman's. It is normal to denegrate Kanawa unless she is singing Mozart, but really, in this piece she rings most of the bells. The accompanying piece on the CD is the Death of Cleopatra sung by none other than....Jessye Norman and here the epic, grand approach pays dividends. ALtogether an excellent disc.

Mike

[George]

That is a fine disc George. Certainly preferable to Norman's. It is normal to denegrate Kanawa unless she is singing Mozart, but really, in this piece she rings most of the bells. The accompanying piece on the CD is the Death of Cleopatra sung by none other than....Jessye Norman and here the epic, grand approach pays dividends. ALtogether an excellent disc.

Mike

Good News! I certainly have enjoyed it the few times that I have listened. 

[zamyrabyrd]

I have the Kiri Te Kanawa/Barenboim recording.
My friend loves this work, I think this one was his favorite.

Yay for Kiri (not Kyrie)

ZB

[Anne]

Jessye can be prone to 'the epic approach'.

Mike

Yes!  Like in the finale of Tristan und Isolde.  5 1/2 stars   

[val]

I remain faithful to Crespin and Ansermet. But I also love von Otter with Levine, more subtle perhaps.

[knight66]

Neither of these are amongst my 12 versions, what an inexhaustable cycle it is. I have heard the Crespin, I seem to have a tin ear for her singing generally, as I regularily hear her as singing flat and as others seem not to hear this, it is presumably a trick of my ears. I have a lot of von Otter discs, not this one. What else is on that disc? Is levine very slow?

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

I have 3 Baker versions. The Hickcox (recorded in 1990), was possibly a little late in Baker's career, though she is never less than inside the songs. Otherwise I would be hard pressed to decide which of her others - Barbirolli and live Giulini - is my favourite. I got to know the songs through Baker's recording with Barbirolli, so it has a special place in my affections, but the Giulini, recorded when Baker was at her vocal peak, is extremely fine, and has the added frisson of a live performance.
I also have Crespin/Ansermet, which I enjoy, but like David Cairns in Song on Record vol 2, find her singing can be a bit earthbound and detached. I'm not sure if it quite lives up to its reputation.
David Daniels sings quite beautifully in his version with John Nelson, but never convinces me that the countertenor is what this cycle needs. As usual, he sings with great musicality and feeling, but he cannot match the range of colour and expression we get from the best sopranos and mezzo sopranos.
Of course, Berlioz didn't write these songs for one voice, and it is interesting to hear Davis's version with Sheila Armstrong (Absence and l'ile inconnue), Josephine Veasey (Le spectre de la rose), Frank Patterson (Villlanelle and Au cimetiere) and John Shirley-Quirk (Sur les lagunes). Though none of the singers, quite finds the emotional core of the songs the way that Baker does, we do hear the contrasts of timbre that Berlioz intended, in the keys he stipulated. For that reason alone, I would want it in my collection.
Another version I own and enjoy is Eleanor Steber with Mitropoulos, the voice quite beautiful, the breath control and legato exemplary. She also responds keenly to the poetry, and I would place it only a little below my versions with Baker, amongst my favourites.
I am reminded now that a friend of mine played me once the version by Brigitte Bailleys, which impressed me hugely. Yet another version I need to add to my collection.

[val]

knight
I have a lot of von Otter discs, not this one. What else is on that disc? Is levine very slow?

The version I have includes one of the best versions of Romeo et Juliette, also conducted by Levine (in both cases with the BPO), with Otter and Langridge.

[Sergeant Rock]

Frederica von Stade is usually superb in French repertoire and she sings a beautiful Nuits d'ete; it's my favorite along with Baker/Barbirolli. I really like Ameling's light voice in Villanelle (Shaw/Telarc) but the "heavier" songs in the cycle are not as good. The Kiri/Norman disc sounds very interesting.

Sarge

[Lilas Pastia]

Frederica von Stade is usually superb in French repertoire and she sings a beautiful Nuits d'ete; it's my favorite along with Baker/Barbirolli. I really like Ameling's light voice in Villanelle (Shaw/Telarc) but the "heavier" songs in the cycle are not as good. The Kiri/Norman disc sounds very interesting.

Sarge

Nuits d'été was not composed for a single voice. It's therefore normal that a light or heavy voice will register better here, not as well there. The pronunciation becomes a hazard for the higher-lying songs, even when it's done to perfection. The poetry alternately refers to the beloved as a male or - mostly - female object. So it comes as a bit strange that a single voice should be singing these songs.  OTOH the 'mixed' cycles leave one curiously unsatisfied emotionally. One of the best I've heard, vocally and dramatically, is Janet Baker in 1972 (Danish Radio, the excellent Herbert Blomstedt conducting). Available on YouTube. Her French pronunciation is unimpeachable (almost too much so if that can be imagined), and her delivery crisp and sonorous. Dramatically the Baker magic operates as potently as ever.

[mjwal]

Nuits d'été was not composed for a single voice. It's therefore normal that a light or heavy voice will register better here, not as well there. The pronunciation becomes a hazard for the higher-lying songs, even when it's done to perfection. The poetry alternately refers to the beloved as a male or - mostly - female object. So it comes as a bit strange that a single voice should be singing these songs.  OTOH the 'mixed' cycles leave one curiously unsatisfied emotionally. One of the best I've heard, vocally and dramatically, is Janet Baker in 1972 (Danish Radio, the excellent Herbert Blomstedt conducting). Available on YouTube. Her French pronunciation is unimpeachable (almost too much so if that can be imagined), and her delivery crisp and sonorous. Dramatically the Baker magic operates as potently as ever.

Resuscitating this thread (my middle names are Victor Frankenstein) because I love this work, I would tend to agree with the above about the 'mixed' cycles, although the Davis is worth having. Some of the singers mentioned before I quite like, but I often find them too homogenised in voice character for this cycle - e.g. von Stade, beautiful but a touch self-regarding as so often, Baker, a tad too earnestly Bakerish all the way through, Crespin, superb despite slightly inappropriate voice quality that never modulates much - which leaves me with one singer, probably unavailable now: Suzanne Danco, the only singer to achieve a light soubrettish French character where needed and then a velvety-rich mezzo-tinted voice for the great tragic songs - and anything needed in between. It's a pity the Cincinnati orchestra is so badly balanced by the recording. Nevertheless, this strikes me as being the interpretation de base, supplemented by those mentioned above plus the Balleys, very classy if you don't know Danco. Nobody else can sing the French language with this kind of sensuous clarity in this work - a work which is just right for listening to on a balmy summer evening such as we are having in the Midi right now...

[knight66]

Thanks for bumping this. Perhaps some competition to the one above...though I have not heard Danco; how about Victoria de los Angeles?

Here the lightness is enticing, the heavier songs are not actually heavy. Of course the French is first rate. She inhabits the plangency of the appropriate songs and even deploys some portamento. She does not take the low F-sharp option on "linceul" in "Sur les lagunes

Munch is self recommending with this composer. It stands at a pole from the live Giulini in terms of the impetus, the throb of ' Sur les lagunes', an underlying grip and no extraordinary lingering. Though, timings are deceptive; as it is swings and roundabouts on the timings of the individual songs between Munch and Giulini. The voice is very closely recorded.

I do like that Giulini version a great deal, it is daring and comes off very well; but many may feel the piece is loved to death.

For the ensemble version; rather than Davis, I prefer John Elliott Gardiner, he has a good group of voices, perhaps lighter in texture than the likes of Veasey.

Susan Graham ought to have provided a top recommendation; but I see nothing special about the vocalisation on the disc. I agree re the comments on the Daniel's version. I enjoy it, but it is really an experiment and not mainstream. His lovely voice cannot convey the many colours that are available to the best mezzos.

One version that may surface and if it does grab it. Katerina Karneus on a performance issued with the BBC Music Magazine; it is first rate.

Mike

[Guido]

I love the Susan Graham version that I have - but it's the only one I have. Seems like Janet Baker would be good to hear too.

[Tsaraslondon]

I love the Susan Graham version that I have - but it's the only one I have. Seems like Janet Baker would be good to hear too.

I have all three of Baker's version, and heard her live several times. I marginally prefer live Giulini to the studio Barbirolli, but there's not much in it. Maybe my allegiance to Barbirolli stems from the fact that it was the recording I got to know the work from.
I have the Crespin/Ansermet and confess to finding it somewhat disappointing. I absolutely adore her version of Ravel's Scheherazade, but here too often she seems somewhat earthbound.  Like the Berlioz scholar David Cairns, writing in Song on Record 2, I find much of her singing regal but mannered, and lacking in vitality. Baker may be a little earnest in Vilanelle, but elsewhere she conveys much more of the music's passion.
I've heard Bailleys once and liked it very much. I need to hear it again.


I like De Los Angeles, but find she suits the lighter songs better than the darker ones.
Another version worth investigating is the one by a singer who is somewhat forgotten these days, Eleanor Steber, with Dimitri Mitropolous conducting, her singing so secure and clean in its attack, and yet so keenly responsive to the poetry. Highly recommended.

[knight66]

Another version worth investigating is the one by a singer who is somewhat forgotten these days, Eleanor Steber, with Dimitri Mitropolous conducting, her singing so secure and clean in its attack, and yet so keenly responsive to the poetry. Highly recommended.

I agree, when do we generally disagree? It is a beautiful recording.

Guido, The Graham disc is fine, just not individual in utterance. It seems a bit laid on rather than felt. If you are happy with it...stay happy. Like Tsaraslondon, I learned the piece from the Baker/Barbirolli version and sometimes we hold onto the version that introduced us to a favoured piece. There is nothing wrong with that.

The work has been fortunate on disc.

Mike

[jhar26]

I love the Kiri recording. I also have Crespin's recording which many regard as a desert island disc, but I prefer Kiri's.

[sospiro]

I'm in Paris at the moment to watch the final stages of the Tour de France.  Been doing some sight seeing & this morning visited Palais Garnier. You can tour quite a bit of it & they let you take photos (non-flash where flash would cause damage).  They are currently holding an exhibition/tribute to Crespin and were showing Les Nuits d'ete in a little studio. It was fascinating & included several interesting documents.

   

[Guido]

I agree, when do we generally disagree? It is a beautiful recording.

Guido, The Graham disc is fine, just not individual in utterance. It seems a bit laid on rather than felt. If you are happy with it...stay happy. Like Tsaraslondon, I learned the piece from the Baker/Barbirolli version and sometimes we hold onto the version that introduced us to a favoured piece. There is nothing wrong with that.

The work has been fortunate on disc.

Mike

I am so gulity of that - but often I think I have been lucky in choosing the "right" or "best" version first! I'm not at all familiar with Baker's voice though so it might be a good place to start.