Just got hold of a copy of the two CD DG survey, I think complete (after a quick check in Grove)- very pleasant listening, music in Berlioz's strong voice as you'd expect from the rest of his output- whereas some composers find it hard to be so characteristic in lieder. Many of the songs are for multiple voices accompanied by a range of instruments; melodic and quirky rather than great music but better than a lot of other garbage I'm into these days.
Amongst those songs is the cycle Les Nuit d'ete. Those songs are of the highest quality. I think I am correct; it was the first orchestral song cycle. Written for a combination of four singers, I prefer the cohesion that one singer can bring to it, despite the odd transposition.
As so often, here was Berlioz experimenting with form.
Mike
Sure thing Mike; I bought that cycle coupled with Lelio if I remember in the Davis survey- the melodic invention is remarkable. The set I've just borrowed though is all lieder, plus a few originals of orchestral songs.
One particularily charming I recall is called La Captive, not a great song, but the tune gets inside your head.
Mike
Great thread. Like many, I am only familiar with his famous orchestral songs - it would be fascinating to hear the others, although I feel they must be very sparsely recorded, given that I have not yet run into a disc of them in all these years...
Quote from: knight on July 09, 2009, 10:16:29 PM
Amongst those songs is the cycle Les Nuit d'ete. Those songs are of the highest quality. I think I am correct; it was the first orchestral song cycle. Written for a combination of four singers, I prefer the cohesion that one singer can bring to it, despite the odd transposition.
As so often, here was Berlioz experimenting with form.
Mike
Yes,
Les nuits d'été is lovely!
Perhaps Sean can give us a note of the disc details. There is an Ann Sophie von Otter Berlioz disc, but it has the cycle taking up quite a bit of it and most of the rest consists of short earl;y cantatas and an extract of Romeo et Juliet, which is lovely, but is not a song.
Here is a list of most, if not all, his non-operatic vocal music. This therefore includes his Faust.
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/b/berlioz.html
I have not tried to disentangle it all, but there look to be quite a few songs. The site may not have ALL his songs on the database.
Mike
Quote from: knight on July 10, 2009, 04:52:15 AM
One particularily charming I recall is called La Captive, not a great song, but the tune gets inside your head.
Indeed;
Grove advises of three versions.
DG 435 860-2
Pollet, Von Otter, Allen, Garben, etc- two CDs, recorded throughout the early 90s.
Thanks, Pollet once had a superb voice. Do you know, is it all the songs or an extended collection?
Mike
I've played in the orchestra for Les nuits d'été. Lovely music, and an exercise in delicacy for the orchestra; very different from, say the Symphonie Fantastique :)
Here is a pic of the original OOP two-disc set Sean mentions:
(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/94/3d/ce68228348a04cdcee9be010.L.jpg)
Fortunately the contents of this set have been repackaged as part of this box set:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/312SMV9KK0L.jpg)
The liner notes to the original set make no mention as to completeness.
Thanks Sean, I recall seeing the box, but too late now. Not to worry...I will survive.
Mike
I can't help feeling something is awry.....unless I missed something....
Care to expand on that...a bit gnomic. 8)
Mike
Oh, I was just delicately trying not to jump the gun about that post of yours thanking Sean when it was me who provided the pics and additional info about that set of songs.
Though like I said it could be something I'm missing... :)
My apologies, I had asked Sean and assumed it was he who had answered. It does not say much for my powers of comprehension or observation.
Mike
Divertimentian's picture is correct.
Quote from: knight on July 12, 2009, 06:10:10 AM
My apologies, I had asked Sean and assumed it was he who had answered. It does not say much for my powers of comprehension or observation.
Mike
Believe me, I had my own misgivings about even
mentioning the whole thing. ;D
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.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DhyDtx3PL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GC2WK609L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Quote from: ccar on December 26, 2009, 08:59:17 AM
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.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DhyDtx3PL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GC2WK609L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
Yes indeed; I know her from her Canteloube selections, all purity and accuracy, and vulnerability.
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
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
Time to scare up the Barzun . . . .
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 27, 2009, 09:42:20 AM
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
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on December 28, 2009, 05:57:55 AM
...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? ;D ;D
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on December 27, 2009, 08:44:14 AM
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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzvqX_phcE). If you enjoy this, there are links to all the other songs performed live.
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
Quote from: zamyrabyrd on December 28, 2009, 11:12:55 PM
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.
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on December 28, 2009, 02:39:30 PM
Another wonderful Baker performance here (with Herbert Blomstedt conducting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzvqX_phcE (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