AMUSE-BOUCHE
French Choral Delicacies
DECCA CLASSICS
2016
“Pleasure: no nation does it quite like the French!
In drama, literature, the concert hall, at table or in bed..." begin the notes to this sumptuous feast of repertoire à la Metropolitaine.
FEATURING:
Jean Françaix - Ode à la Gastronomie (world première)
Daniel-Lesur - Les Cantiques de Cantiques (12 voices)
Poulenc - Hôtel / Sept chansons / Un Soir de Neige
AMUSE-BOUCHE
French Choral Delicacies
DECCA / 2016
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Short Film
Ode à la Gastronomie
Composed by Jean Françaix
Directed by John La Bouchardière
2016 / 20mins
Album Trailer
Amuse-Bouche - French Choral Delicacies
Featuring extracts from the recording and interviews with
Robert Hollingworth and the Françaix family.
Hôtel - Full Performance
Composed by Francis Poulenc
Featuring Anna Markland
2016 / 2:12mins
Ravel: Adagio from Piano Concerto No. 2
Arranged by Roderick Williams
Featuring Anna Markland
2016 / 2:28mins
EDITOR’S CHOICE
“The very best kind of musical pleasure… I Fagiolini bring all the madrigalian clarity and responsive, soloistic singing of their early music performances to this contemporary repertoire… ”
GRAMOPHONE
REVIEWS
★★★★
”Exquisitely accompanied by pianist Anna Markland… As pianist and singer, Markland offers the most idiomatic performance… Together with sopranos Helen Neeves and Kirsty Hopkins, she also locates a stylish, smiling blend.”
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
★★★★
”I Fagiolini venture confidently into early and mid-twentieth-century French repertoire… with Anna Markland sensuously tickling the ivories.”
THE TIMES
PHOTO GALLERY
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Session photography by Matthew Brodie
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
I Fagiolini has been performing 20th century music since its first concert, and French music has long been part of this. The Poulenc and Milhaud have appeared in our concerts for years. The Daniel-Lesur, Jean Françaix and Ravel arrangement have not – and were put together specially for this recording (though we are singing all three in concerts this summer).
The two larger-scale works on this disc are both for 12-voices and were written within two years of each other – in 1950 and 1952 – but couldn’t be more different in intent. We believe this is the first recording of Jean Françaix’s Ode à la gastronomie, a humorous hommage to Brillat-Savarin’s famous 1825 tome, La Physiologie du goût, which encapsulated the French attitude to food and dining. The whole work has rarely been attempted, never released on CD and never filmed.
Daniel-Lesur’s ravishing 12-voice setting of Song of Songs texts are so beautifully-crafted. The layout of voices constantly shifts to produce a kaleidoscopic range of colours. In his research for the sleeve note, Hugh Keyte unearthed fascinating layers of meaning to this piece – but sleeve notes are short and Hugh is a chatty fellow. So here you can find the full notes on the pieces – crucial for anyone wanting to dip further into this great work of 20th century choral music.
ROBERT HOLLINGWORTH
FULL TRACKLISTING
AMUSE-BOUCHE - French Choral Delicacies
RELEASED BY DECCA CLASSICS / 2016
01. Pro fumo / 0:26
02. Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) / Banalités, FP 107 - Hôtel / 2:02
Jean Françaix (1912 - 1997) / Ode à la gastronomie
03. - La physiologie du goût / 7:56
04. - Père Bernadin et la truffe noire / 4:51
05. - Gastéréa, dixième des Muses / 4:19
06. Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) - Gnossienne No. 4 / 3:11
Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908 - 2002) / Le Cantique des cantiques
07. - Dialogue / 3:19
08. - La voix du bien-aimé/ 3:28
09. - Le songe / 1:36
10. - Le Roi Salomon / 1:31
11. - Le jardin clos / 4:16
12. - La sulamite / 3:19
13. - Epithalame / 2:39
14. Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) - Gnossienne No.5 / 3:27
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) / Sept Chansons, FP 81
15. - La blanche neige / 1:19
16. - A peine defigurée / 1:28
17. - Par une nuit nouvelle / 1:32
18. - Tous les droits / 2:29
19. - Belle et ressemblante / 1:54
20. - Marie / 2:04
21. - Luire / 1:58
22. Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) - Gnossienne No.6 / 2:13
Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974) / Deux poèmes
23. - Éloge V / 3:26
24. - Le brick / 2:19
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) / Un soir de neige, FP 126
25. - Le feu / 1:04
26. - Un loup / 1:27
27. - Derniers instants / 1:48
28. - Du dehors / 0:59
29. Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) / Piano Concerto in G Major, M. 83 Arr. Roderick Williams - Adagio / 9:05
