Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers – Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas. An iconic figure in the world of French music – his songs described as being ‘imperfect...but works of genius’ by Ravel and ‘perfect’ by Debussy – Duparc only composed a handful of works during the first half of his life: following a nervous disorder in 1885 at age 37 he lived for a further 48 years, orchestrating and tinkering with his songs, but publishing nothing new.

Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau is recognized at the highest international level as one of the UK’s leading accompanists, performing worldwide alongside the world’s greatest singers and with a discography of over 100 albums, including a number of award-winning recordings.

REVIEW

With four singers in the line-up, there is plenty of vocal variety. The lion’s share of the songs is allotted to Sarah Connolly who still has her voice in fine fettle. She perhaps displays a wider vibrato than in past, but the tone is beautiful and her expressiveness is undiminished, and her high notes ring out gloriously. She is allotted seven songs, while her three male colleagues have three each. But we shouldn’t forget the fifth participant, Malcolm Martineau at the piano. His role is just as important as the singers’, since these songs are no mere melodies with accompaniments but rather dramatic or narrative scenes, where the piano sets the scene and propels the action forward. In that respect Duparc is Wagnerian in his approach. Obviously we focus on the singer, but the piano part mustn’t be suppressed. Malcolm Martineau shows that he is a born director and keeps the proceedings on a tight rein.

-- MusicWeb International

This sublime recording of Henri Duparc's complete m�lodies spans the entirety of the composer's musical career - a career tragically cut short by mental illness. Duparc was plagued by nervousness, and his frequent changes of opinion or of heart led him to destroy most of the music he composed, leaving relatively little to posterity. What we do have are a collection of songs wonderfully varied in style and inspiration, balancing the composer's French roots with the German influences that were so often predominant in his oeuvre. From the intensely Wagnerian 'Au Pays o� se fait la guerre' to the distinctly Gounodian 'S�r�nade'; from the drama of the 'Chanson triste' to the seductive yearning of the 'S�r�nade florentine'; from the feverish 'Le Manoir de Rosemonde' to the solemn and moving 'Lamento' -these settings of more than a dozen different poets carry us enthrallingly through Duparc's ever-changing poetic universe. Andrea Mastroni and Mattia Ometto have an established track record in performing 19th-century chamber music together, particularly Schubert Lieder. 'Golden-touch' pianist Ometto (American Record Guide) also recorded the complete m�lodies of C�sar Franck for Brilliant Classics in 2013. Bass Andrea Mastroni is one of the foremost young vocalists of Italy, he performed at world famous stages like La Scala Milano, La Fenice, Bayerische Staatsoper, Theatre de Champs-Elys�es, Opera National de Paris. He is expertly seconded by pianist Mattia Ometto, a well known soloist, here in the role of a sympathetic duo partner.

Piesni (Songs)

Stuttgart-born mezzo-soprano Christina Baader has been a much sought-after musician for many years, not only as an opera singer and soloist, but is also an internationally successful visual artist. To mark the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Faure's death, Christina Baader and Gert Hecher, piano, are presenting an album by the title MONDE ET MYSTeRE with a selection of his songs as well as those by Henri Duparc, who also played a significant role in establishing an independent French art of song. The expressive songs are based on poems by famous French poets such as Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Armand Silvestre, Theophile Gautier, Rene-Fran�ois Sully-Prudhomme and Jean Lahor. Together with Gert Hecher, a specialist in the restoration of historical keyboard instruments, two grand pianos from 1868 and 1879, respectively, from the famous erard piano manufactory in Paris, which at the time had a similar status to Steinway & Sons today, were chosen to best emphasize the different tonal and stylistic elements of the works of the two composers.

Includes song(s) by Henri Duparc. Soloists: Paul Groves, Roger Vignoles.

The interpretation of the complete melodic works of Duparc, this absolute summit in the art of the Lied in the 19th century, calls for a rare mix of youth, experience, interiority and expressivity, in addition to a rare tessitura: a middle range voice in which the extremes are as pleasing as the middle register. Coming from Quebec, Michèle Losier, hitherto applauded on numerous North-American opera stages, impressed the 2008 edition of the Reine Elisabeth Singing Competition by her bewitching art of the recital. This enabled her to meet Daniel Blumenthal, a dream accompanist, and to risk this thrilling adventure in the beautiful hall of the Concertgebouw in Bruges. The result has disconcerting beauty and the added merit of enabling us to admire the lesser known melodies of this great genius, next to his universally celebrated masterpieces. Duparc, who stopped writing at thirty-nine (1884) and painfully survived himself for half a century, offers us the heart and soul of French Romanticism in this interpretation.