Instrumentation : High voice - Pf (Fr.) Those interested in French music have often had reason to be grateful to Roger Nichols; his writings on Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen and Poulenc are indispensable to the music lover. Nichols now turns his attentions to the mélodie, where it is his mission to encourage singers to explore beyond the well-trodden paths of French song. In these two anthologies he does not ignore masterpieces by composers of the stature of Fauré and Duparc, but sets them alongside music - almost impossible to find elsewhere in print - by such under-estimated figures as Reber, Viardot, Massé and Paladilhe. Even the more celebrated songs are often not easily found in practical editions, which makes this selection an ideal starting point for wider exploration. In each of these volumes the songs appear in the chronological order of their composer's birth, but Nichols somehow contrives a line-up of music which seems delightfully arbitrary at the same time as carefully designed to enrich everyone's understanding of the mélodie. The books also contain a remarkable amount of scholarship, lightly worn and pithily expressed. As well as complete translations of the songs, there is a useful and concise introduction on singing in French, together with an illuminating historical note and critical commentary; and Nichols gives full due to the poets who were of crucial importance in the development of the mélodie tradition. Graham Johnson Content : Niedermeyer:Le Lac (Meditation poétique);Berlioz:Absence;Gounod:Ô ma belle rebelle;Viardot: Fleur desséchée; Franck: S'il est un charmant gazon; Massé: Consolation;Lalo: Ballade à la lune; Saint-Saëns: La sérénité;Delibes: Chanson espagnole; Bizet: Pastorale; Massenet: Nuit d'Espagne; Chabrier: L'île heureuse; Paladilhe: Sérénité de la nuit; Fauré: Lydia; Fauré: Après un rêve; Duparc: Extase; Chausson: Le colibri; Debussy: Mandoline; Debussy: C'est l'extase langoureuse; Satie: Daphénéo; Satie: Spleen; Séverac: Ma poupée chérie; Dupont: Chanson des noisettes; Poulenc: La Grenouillère Editor :Nichols

A wonderful collection of Seven Early Songs from Arnold Schoenberg. Six of these songs were discovered together in a manuscript which now resides at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles. Unfortunately many of the surviving copies of the songs were used as performance copies and none of them reached publication. Brought together for the first time in over 100 years these songs have been returned to their former glory by editor Leonard Stein. In the original German with English translation.

Par SZYMANOWSKI KAROL. The composition of the Princess Songs marked the beginning of a particularly productive phase for Karol Szymanowski. Based on a series of poems by his sister Zofia, Szymanowski composed this colorful and glittering music in 1915; its exotic, lyrical and fantastical world is expressed in the coloratura soprano’s many passages, featuring trills and rapid runs. The princess herself remains mysteriously undefined. Love is her only recurrent theme. By withdrawing into internal fantasy during a time of war, Szymanowski found an opportunity to retreat into a dream world, and composing songs remained an important part of his lifelong work; in 1933 he arranged three of the six Princess Songs for voice and orchestra. (Sakari Oramo orchestrated the other three and conducted their first performance in 2012). (Translation on UE website by Grant Chorley.)/ Répertoire / Voix Haute et Piano