Reynaldo (Hahn's) jet d'eau

[Florestan]

I've ordered a copy of the Chalvin 'Divertissement' CD, because I somehow can't resist the cover.

Wise move! That's a corker of a recording.

[Mister Sharpe]

I think Elgarian Redux is spot-on about casual listeners mistaking Hahn's mélodies to be lightweight; regrettably, many of them will dismiss the composer himself as such. Though he is by no means a one-trick pony.  Reminds me not a little of a line from a Neil Young song, seems à propos: "so a subtle face is a loser this time around..." I think there is something about human nature that keeps many of us (not all of us, by any means), though certainly a majority from seeing (or hearing) profundity, even desirability, in subtlety. Hahn's modulations are typically slight, chromatic inflections, sensitive reflections of emotional, often sentimental, nuance.  Isn't it typical of our hurly-burly world for it to see in Hahn's intimate exploration of human feeling something "lightweight"? And yet, as one learns in therapy, there's nothing we experience in life as powerful - sometimes overwhelming - as our own feelings. So, light?, au contraire , deep, at times profoundly so. 

When I was a teen listening to pop radio, something that fascinated me was one DJ who would put two performances of the same song up to an on-air, call-in vote. The losing record would be smashed to smithereens - on air! - such fun (as long as it wasn't the record you favored)!  I would not want to do that with Hahn's competition in the song Mandoline, as I like Debussy's and Fauré's versions - (and they weren't the only ones to set Verlaine's poem, believe it or not).  Each found something different in it, but Hahn rules, I believe.  What do you say? Which is your favorite? BTW, that song used to be in my head day and night, as well as the irresistibly minxy Quand je fus pris au pavillon, its narrator ensnared by sweet torment.  Here's wishing all Hahn fans much pleasant suffering. 

[Elgarian Redux]

I think Elgarian Redux is spot-on about casual listeners mistaking Hahn's mélodies to be lightweight; regrettably, many of them will dismiss the composer himself as such. Though he is by no means a one-trick pony.  Reminds me not a little of a line from a Neil Young song, seems à propos: "so a subtle face is a loser this time around..." I think there is something about human nature that keeps many of us (not all of us, by any means), though certainly a majority from seeing (or hearing) profundity, even desirability, in subtlety. Hahn's modulations are typically slight, chromatic inflections, sensitive reflections of emotional, often sentimental, nuance.  Isn't it typical of our hurly-burly world for it to see in Hahn's intimate exploration of human feeling something "lightweight"? And yet, as one learns in therapy, there's nothing we experience in life as powerful - sometimes overwhelming - as our own feelings. So, light?, au contraire , deep, at times profoundly so. 

When I was a teen listening to pop radio, something that fascinated me was one DJ who would put two performances of the same song up to an on-air, call-in vote. The losing record would be smashed to smithereens - on air! - such fun (as long as it wasn't the record you favored)!  I would not want to do that with Hahn's competition in the song Mandoline, as I like Debussy's and Fauré's versions - (and they weren't the only ones to set Verlaine's poem, believe it or not).  Each found something different in it, but Hahn rules, I believe.  What do you say? Which is your favorite? BTW, that song used to be in my head day and night, as well as the irresistibly minxy Quand je fus pris au pavillon, its narrator ensnared by sweet torment.  Here's wishing all Hahn fans much pleasant suffering. 

Ha! I knew you'd have an interesting take on all this. I can't respond to the question in your second paragraph though. Too ignorant. But I'll get there eventually.