Enescu: Vocal Bits 'n Bobs

 

I was going to include this recording at the end of this week's Enescu concertante Bits 'n Bobs, but after listening, I simply had to make it separate. To make it worthwhile, I did a little recorded comparison.


Sept Chansons de Clément Marot

I find this song cycle of seven French mélodie from George Enescu astounding. The songs are tender, intimate, witty, and desolate, offering the variety every good song cycle should bear. Enescu didn't compose all that much over his career, mainly due to his solo violin performing schedule, but what a loss that he didn't write more for voice, for this is splendid music.

I first came across this music from the recording from Arte Nova. It is an orchestrated version, the only one of its kind that I have found thus far. The sound is not great, helped in no way by the live performance conditions, and the tenor Florin Diaconescu is heroic, yet a tad strangled in tone.

Still, the superiority of Enescu's music easily comes to the fore regardless. I do enjoy the orchestrated version, although I do not know who the orchestration comes from. Perhaps it was a one-off from these Romanian performers. Either way, once heard, I had to seek out more, for the sonics here are not particularly kind to the ear.

 

French baritone Didier Henry was a singer I lauded in a few orchestral songs paired with Saint-Saëns oratorios recently (BLOG). Thus, it is not surprise I came to this recording first when searching out Enescu's Sept Chansons.

I shouldn't have. This live recital with Anne le Bozec at the keyboard, finds the baritone at 60s years old, with a voice not as stable as he was much younger. That is true for all of us, but for a recording, it was disappointing. His timbre is scratchy and the vibrato is looser, although he finds a burly soldiering tone in the sixth chansons wonderfully.

As already mentioned, this performance was also recorded live, although I wouldn't have known it from this song cycle alone. No audience noise was apparent, however the live setting explains the not-so ideal recorded balances.

 

 

 

After having heard a tenor and a baritone in Enescu's Sept Chansons, I didn't expect to find a contralto in the music. Now that I have searched further afield, I see names such as Ileana Cotrubaș and Elena Moșuc having performed the song cycle. Those shall be sought out in due time, I am sure.

Sonically, this recording from the Naïve is the best of the trio. Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux has a middle-of-the-road tone, neither relishing her low range, nor glittering in the upper tessitura. Perhaps the songs themselves are to blame, for they don't offer her the variety I quite expected. Further listening to the work from female voices should make comparisons a little easier. Otherwise, Lemieux's voice is lovely, even if her vibrato has a fair bit more beat to it than I would prefer.

I didn't mention the pianists in either recording, but the part for the keyboard can be demanding, yet is generally subdued. Both Anne de Bozec and Daniel Blumenthal seem able partners with the singers.

Bits 'n Bobs

Sept Chansons de Clément Marot, Op. 15
  Florian Diaconescu, tenor
  Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
  Cristian Mandeal, conductor
  Arte Nova; 1999, 2006

Sept Chansons de Clément Marot, Op. 15
  Didier Henry, baritone
  Anne de Bozec, piano
  Maguelone; 2013

Sept Chansons de Clément Marot, Op. 15
  Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto
  Daniel Blumenthal, piano
  Naïve; 2005

Find more Enescu recordings HERE!