Composer: Rita Strohl
Performer: Elsa Dreisig, Adèle Charvet, Stéphane Degout, Olivia Darlic, Célia Oneto Bensaid, Romain Louveau, Florian Caroubi
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: La Boîte à Pépites
Catalogue: BAP04-05
Release: 2023
Size: 1.63 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Bilitis
01. I. Lykas
02. II. La Partie d’osselets
03. III. La Quenouille
04. IV. La Flûte de Pan
05. V. La Chevelure
06. VI. Roses dans la nuit
07. VII. Les Remords
08. VIII. Le Sommeil interrompu
09. IX. Bilitis
10. X. Le Serment
11. XI. La Nuit
12. XII. Berceuse
Quand la fûte de Pan
13. I. Mouvement modéré
14. II. Vite
15. III. Assez lent
16. IV. Lent
17. V. Très mouvementé
18. VI. Assez lent
CD 02
Six Poésies de Baudelaire mises en musique
01. I. Un fantôme
02. II. Spleen
03. III. Obsession
04. V. Remords posthumes
05. VI. Madrigal triste
Dix Poésies mises en musique
06. I. Barcarolle
07. II. La Cloche fêlée
08. III. Chanson d’automne
09. IV. Le Moulin à vent
10. V. Le Revenant
11. VI. Vieilles Cloches
12. VII. La Momie
13. VIII. La Tristesse de la lune
14. IX. La Mort des pauvres
15. X. L’Epinette
16. Carmen
“Ms Strohl is a composer of genius who particularly excels in setting the loveliest poems to music.” – La Nation (February 26, 1903)
Rita Strohl is an atypical figure in the history of music. Attracted to both the Wagnerian universe and symbolism, she composed works of chamber music as well as grand lyrical and symphonic soundscapes.
This double CD, containing performances by exceptional artists, is the first part of a three-part project dedicated to the music of Rita Strohl. It is entirely devoted to her songs, most of which have never been recorded until now.
The rediscovery of music by female composers came a bit later to France than it did to Britain or the U.S., but the new label La Boîte à Pépites is changing that with a series of generous releases illustrated by nifty drawings of the composers. The label does a real service here with this double-album revival of vocal music by Rita Strohl (songs, plus a fascinating set for narrator and piano), who lived from 1865 to 1941. It is hard to understand the neglect of her music, which was praised by Henri Duparc and programmed by Pablo Casals in its own time. In these songs, it is a bit hard to hear the “compositrice de la démesure” (“composer of excess”) promised by the album’s subtitle; perhaps that is still to come in the label’s series, but Strohl did expand upon her models — Franck, with some Wagner and Debussy — in striking ways. Perhaps the best-known Strohl work so far is the uniquely dramatic and programmatic cello sonata called Titus et Bérenice, presumably still to come from La Boîte à Pépites. However, the songs here are hefty in their ambition and reach, sounding in no way derivative of anybody else. Strohl offers her own set of Pierre Louÿs’ lesbian Songs of Bilitis that could easily be programmed with Debussy’s set of three. The second disc in the set is devoted mostly to settings of Baudelaire and other poets; the two cycles, written in 1891 and 1894, would have been received as entirely contemporary in their time. Most interesting of all is the set of narrations, titled Quand la flûte de Pan; they have Symbolist texts by the little-known Marie de Courpon, who was also a composer, and the relationship between text and music is fluid. The performances are by major artists, including the soprano Elsa Dreisig and baritone Stéphane Degout, which bodes well for the future of a series that has started promisingly indeed.