Chausson: Poeme de l'amour et de la mer; Symphonie, Op. 20
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Item Number: 21705765
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SKU: NX.ALPHA441

By Orchestre National de Lille and Veronique Gens. By Ernest Chausson. Classical, Romantic Era. Classical. CD. Alpha #ALPHA441. Published by Alpha (NX.ALPHA441).

Conducted by Alexandre Bloch.

Ernest Chausson is a most unusual figure in French music, positioned at the crossroads where the romanticism of Berlioz and Franck meet the language of Wagner and the symbolism of the young Debussy. His Poeme de l'amour et de la mer is a unique score for the period and certainly his greatest work; simultaneously a profane, naturistic cantata, a monologue, and a song cycle, it was composed between 1882 and 1892 to poetry by Maurice Bouchor, a longstanding friend of Chausson. Veronique Gens is recording this cycle for the first time, although she has already issued 'Le temps des lilas' with Susan Manoff at the piano for her album Neere, about which Ernst Van Bek wrote in Classiquenews: 'Chausson's Le temps des lilas mesmerises with the nuancing of its colors, the allusive precision of every sung word: this ecstatic, depressive prayer represents another peak of French post-Wagnerianism. The song uninterruptedly expresses the profound, accursed languor of overcharged spirits. The tact and sense of style that Gens displays, is proof of her remarkably acute understanding of the veiled references.' Clement Taillia, in Forum Opera, spoke of 'all the art of a song that desires to express itself...' Veronique Gens' talent is equally on display in this recording too, with the Orchestre National de Lille - an orchestra she already knows well - under Alexandre Bloch, its new chief conductor, whose appointment and first concerts and recordings have already caused a sensation. We can confidently predict that these two artists will be collaborating again in the near future... The Symphony in B flat major completes this programme: a summit of French symphonic writing, for some a milestone as important as the Symphony in D of Chausson's teacher Cesar Franck!