Melodies - Stephane Degout, Helene Lucas (2011)

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Melodies - Stephane Degout, Helene Lucas (2011)

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New Naïve signing baritone Stéphane Degout has already featured as soloist with the internationally renowned choral group Accentus on Brahms' German Requiem and Fauré's Requiem. The programme on his solo debut CD is a selection of mélodies by various French composers, Debussy, Ravel, Duparc, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, and Reynaldo Hahn. Stéphane Degout first met pianist Hélène Lucas when he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in 1995. She soon detected the young singer’s qualities and introduced him to the world of the mélodie and the lieder, and Stéphane gave his first recitals of this repertoire with Hélène Lucas as accompanist. After his acclaimed debut as Papageno at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the international operatic world opened its doors to him and kept him away from the lied and the mélodie for a while, but he has now returned to his roots.

Next to the great names of the French mélodie, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel, Gounod, Bizet, Chabrier and Saint-Saëns appear less often in the singer’s repertoire. Among the latter’s many songs the pieces featured here are splendid examples of subtle orientalism. The less numerous mélodies of Chabrier introduce a French approach to Wagnerism with highly elaborate piano parts and extremely sensual vocal lines. The third of the somewhat neglected mélodistes represented in this programme is Reynaldo Hahn. His vocal works are frequently viewed as relatively lightweight, but the two songs featured here Trois jours de vendanges, and Cimetière de campagne are full of depth and melancholy.

Composer: Emmanuel Chabrier, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc, Reynaldo Hahn, …
Performer: Stèphane Degout, Helene Lucas

Reviews: Quite a few discs with French melodies have come my way during the last two or three years. Even though, generally speaking, I find German Lieder more immediate and attractive, French songs more and more open up and let me into their specific world. Here we are treated to songs by half a dozen composers, several of whom one can always expect on a mixed recital like this – but no Fauré this time. And a couple of them are not particularly well known for their songs. The singer, Stéphane Degout, was Schaunard on the DG recording of La bohème under Bertrand de Billy, which was issued almost three years ago. I found him very good in a role that isn’t exactly a showstopper but this is my first encounter with him as a performer of art songs. Since his acclaimed debut as Papageno in Aix-en-Provence in 1999, he has been in great demand in many opera houses. Some years ago felt that he wanted to resume his interest in Lieder and Mélodies that he had cultivated during his studies at the Conservatoire in Lyon, together with Hélène Lucas. They make a splendid duo: sensitive and flexible with a good sense for the fine nuances as well as dramatic involvement.

The opening Debussy songs are splendid examples of the fascinating correspondence between the vocal line and the piano part. Debussy is often perfumed but never stale. Le son du cor (tr. 2) is especially well sung, soft and intimate. Duparc very often gets the best out of singers and here Le Galop is almost a knock-out: lively, almost wild with a dramatic illustrative piano part. The other three songs are among his most noblest and receive readings to match.

Saint-Saëns’s songs are rather infrequently heard but these two indicate that it would be well worth the effort to search some others out as well. The second of these Persian songs, Tournoiement, songe d’opium (Spinning: an opium dream) is highly individual and the hectic, nervous feeling of eternal activity is so well depicted in the accompaniment. Chabrier, best known for his colourful orchestral works, may be a surprise to many song aficionados with his charmingly melodious L’île heureuse (The Happy Isle). It radiates happiness in a way that few art songs do. Chanson pour Jeanne also begins on a happy note but the mood changes to bitter sorrow, well illustrated in the accompaniment. The third song¸ Les Cigales, is memorably sung by Hugues Cuénod on a Nimbus disc that I reviewed less than a year ago. Degout, though he has more voice, isn’t quite in that class but it is a winning performance even so and it confirms that Chabrier’s songs has a freshness that makes them stand out from his fellow French composers.

Reynaldo Hahn has long been a favourite and these are agreeable readings of agreeable songs.

The concluding two groups of songs are among the most important of French songs during the 20th century – though they are quite different. Ravel chose to set the prose of Jules Renard, where he aimed at finding the speech rhythms and embedded the texts in an atmospheric and colourful piano part. Debussy set Medieval poet François Villon’s juicy ballades and found, particularly in Ballade des femmes de Paris, a down-to-earth irony that is liberating. Both groups, or cycles, are performed with finesse and round off a very appealing recital. Degout occasionally lacks tonal variety but these are well conceived and thought-through readings that should attract wide audiences. The recorded sound is good and there are interesting liner notes by Rémy Stricker.