Composer: Cécile Chaminade, Claude Achille Debussy, Henri Duparc, Gabriel Urbain Fauré, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel, Charles Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer: Emmanuel Despax
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Signum
Catalogue: SIGCD747
Release: 2023
Size: 1.17 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1
Poulenc: Les Soirées de Nazelles
02. Préambule
03. I. Le comble de la distinction
04. II. Le cœur sur la main
05. III. La désinvolture et la discrétion
06. IV. La suite dans les idées
07. V. Le charme enjôleur
08. VI. Le contentement de soi
09. VII. Le goût du malheur
10. VIII. L’alerte vieillesse
11. Cadence
12. Final
13. Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune
14. Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre, Op. 40
15. Chaminade: Nocturne Op. 165
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
16. I. Ondine
17. II. Le Gibet
18. III. Scarbo
19. Duparc: Aux Étoiles
‘Après un Rêve’ is an ode to the French Belle Époque repertoire, depicting the beauty of dreams and the night.
The album is an opportunity to hear and perhaps discover rarely played / rarely recorded wonderful works (Chaminade Nocturne, Duparc Aux étoiles, Poulenc Les soirées de Nazelles), alongside central pillars of the repertoire, and includes a world premiere of Despax’s arrangement of ‘Après un rêve’.
The album is attributed to his grandfather, Jacques Charpentreau, a French poet who adored this repertoire and frequently drew inspiration from the night in his works.
Despax has curated some of his poetry, as well as works by other poets he admired to complement this music, taking the listener on an immersive poetic and musical journey through this nocturnal landscape.
It is hard to figure out what pianist Emmanuel Despax had in mind for the concept of this album. Its various titles offer three ideas: Après un rêve comes from the title of a Fauré song Despax transcribes for his program opener, plus there is “Belle Époque: Nights at the Piano.” None of these is of much use; few pieces other than the Fauré are particularly dreamy, and the largest piece, Poulenc’s Soirées de Nazelles, is from the nervous 1930s and nowhere near the Belle Époque in time or mood. As for “Nights at the Piano,” that fits the Poulenc nicely but not the concluding Gaspard de la Nuit of Ravel, which is an imposing virtuoso concert work carrying none of the connotations of “Nights at the Piano.” Really, Despax excels in none of these three ways but rather in a fourth: he hits on an intriguing mix of familiar standards and unusual works. Among the latter group are the Soirées de Nazelles, which Poulenc disclaimed and, perhaps for that reason, have been seldom heard. They are delightful pieces that bear titles describing qualities, like the numbers of a Baroque French suite, but actually seem to have been devised by Poulenc to describe members of a group of his friends, like Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The result is a work that distills the hint of improvisation that pervades some of Poulenc’s keyboard music and songs, and Despax gives it the right lively, spontaneous feel. The Nocturne, Op. 165, of Cécile Chaminade and the keyboard version of Henri Duparc’s Aux étoiles are also nice finds. As for the more heavily trodden works, Debussy’s Clair de lune is pleasantly moody, although no one would select this album for the rote Gaspard de la Nuit or the rather un-macabre Danse Macabre, Op. 40, of Saint-Saëns. For Poulenc lovers, however, this is an important find.