Douce France
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Label: Naive
Cat No: V5343
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 28th October 2013
Contents
Works
GottingenQuel joli temps (Septembre)
Chansons de Bilitis (3)
Songs (3), op.23
Le Pont Mirabeau
Padam Padam
La vie en rose (Marguerite Monnot)
Le facteur
Chansons grises (7)
Le Plus Beau Present
Puisque j'ai mis ma levre
Quand je fus pris au pavillon
Les Feuilles mortes
Je vivrai sans toi
La chanson des jumelles
A Paris
Parlez-moi d'amour
Poemes (4), op.5
Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer
Epigrammes de Clement Marot (2)
Danse macabre (song)
Si vous n'avez rien a me dire
Vogue, vogue la galere
Boum!
Douce France
Que reste t-il de nos amours
Artists
Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano)Bengt Forsberg (piano)
Antoine Tamestit (viola)
Bjorn Gafvert (harmonium)
Works
GottingenQuel joli temps (Septembre)
Chansons de Bilitis (3)
Songs (3), op.23
Le Pont Mirabeau
Padam Padam
La vie en rose (Marguerite Monnot)
Le facteur
Chansons grises (7)
Le Plus Beau Present
Puisque j'ai mis ma levre
Quand je fus pris au pavillon
Les Feuilles mortes
Je vivrai sans toi
La chanson des jumelles
A Paris
Parlez-moi d'amour
Poemes (4), op.5
Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer
Epigrammes de Clement Marot (2)
Danse macabre (song)
Si vous n'avez rien a me dire
Vogue, vogue la galere
Boum!
Douce France
Que reste t-il de nos amours
Artists
Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano)Bengt Forsberg (piano)
Antoine Tamestit (viola)
Bjorn Gafvert (harmonium)
About
A loving tribute to French Song, by one of the greatest voices. With exceptional sensibility and understanding of the French language, the renowned Swedish singer pays a loving homage to French melody and song.
Known for her artistic journeys which transcend the borders of musical genre, Anne Sofie von Otter’s collaborations include those with Elvis Costello and Brad Mehldau, with whom she recorded her ‘Love Songs’ album on Naïve.
Anne Sofie von Otter here presents a unique panorama of French song spanning two centuries, from the melodies of Fauré and Debussy to the classic songs of Piaf, Trenet, Barbara, Ferré and Moustaki. United by a shared beauty of language and emotively simple melody, each work is a timeless treasure encapsulating French tradition andspirit. All captured with the legendary class of the great Anne Sofie von Otter.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Hahn - L'heure exquise
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2Saint-Saens - Si vous n'avez rien a me dire
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3Hahn - Quand je fus pris au pavillon
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4Hahn - Cimetiere
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5Faure - Le secret
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6Ravel - Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer
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7Loeffler - Serenade
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8Saint-Saens - Danse macabre
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9Barbara - Gottingen
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10Glanzberg - Padam Padam
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11Hadjidakis - Le facteur
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12Legrand - Je vivrai sans toi
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13Kosma - Les feuilles mortes
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14Moustaki - La carte du tendre
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15Lenoir - Parlez-moi d'amour
Europadisc Review
There are few more versatile singers today than Anne Sofie von Otter, and fewer still who could bring off such a delicious combination of styles. In the words of Paul Valéry’s Lettre à Mme C... (quoted in the booklet), hers is ‘a voice confident throughout its register, a voice much more extended than the voice that sufficed for poetry’: precise in its attacks, rich in its sonorities, attentive to timing and silences and marked in its changes of tone.
In the classical mélodies she is joined by her long-established accompanist Bengt Forsberg, and together they conjure up an enchanting soundworld for Reynaldo Hahn’s L’Heure exquise and Le plus beau présent which open the recital. Even more haunting are Ravel’s D’Anne jouant de l’espinette and Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer and Debussy’s three Chansons de Bilitis, which cast a magical spell over the listener in performances of the greatest delicacy. There are three further songs by Hahn, Fauré’s Le Secret, two items by the German-American (but utterly Francophile) Charles Martin Loeffler with notable contributions from Antoine Tamestit on viola, and a clutch of songs by Saint-Saëns, ending with a brilliant arrangement by Forsberg and Tamestit of Danse macabre for voice, viola and piano.
While the first disc was recorded in Stockholm’s Berwald Hall, the second was set down in the Atlantis Studio, a ‘wonderfully patinated’ ex-cinema which von Otter obviously relishes as a recording studio. She makes the transition to the more suggestive atmosphere of the nouvelle chanson sound effortless, her husky lower register enticing and engaging throughout. Here the much larger band is led by percussionist Per Ekdahl, who also prepared all of the musical arrangements. From the ebullient pavement-café style of Glanzberg’s Padam Padam and the humour of Trenet’s Boum! to the jazz-club intimacy of Barbara’s Septembre (Quel joli temps) and Legrand’s Je vivrai sans toi, this is a marvellously wide-ranging selection of classic popular chansons. The title track, Chauliac and Trenet’s Douce France, receives a beautifully relaxed and captivating performance, while von Otter’s son Fabian Fredriksson makes a cameo appearance on electric guitar in Ferré’s À Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The final track, Jean Lenoir’s Parlez-moi d’amour, features a quite lovely harp solo from Margareta Bengtson. Anne Sofie von Otter’s voice, with its astonishing range of timbres, alternates between and often combines twinkling humour, suggestive intimacy, and sensuality, making this disc a real treat.
Though the booklet articles are given in French and English, sung texts are printed in French only, but such is the vividness of the performances that translations are scarcely necessary; indeed, they’d probably spoil the pervasive sense of poetic intimacy. The spirit of Paris, it seems, is alive and well in Stockholm!
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