Category: Ambroise Thomas

Sabine Devielhe

Yes, I’m a fan. She has such a beautiful voice, no idea what angels sound like, but you’d hope they have a similar sound.

I love her 2016 Mozart album (see my initial review here, my comment on the same album winning the Gramophone award in that category, and that I named this among my top 5 classical albums of 2016).

Note that her Rameau album with Alexis Kossenko Le Grand Théatre de l’Amour is also outstanding.

I was also very close to put this into my Top 5 Classical Albums of 2017, I simply didn’t because I simply felt more comfortable writing about repertoire that I’m more familiar with. Consider this a late addition.

French composers

I must admit I’m really not a great expert on French music. I like the occasional Rameau, my understanding of Berlioz is pretty much limited to the Symphonie Fantastique, I know a handful of works by Franck, only dabble a bit in Debussy and Ravel, and that’s it.

Half of the names on this album I had barely heard of (Charles Koechlin, Ambroise Thomas), some were fully new to me (Maurice Delage, André Messager), and I’m also only very superficially familiar with the works of Delibes and Massenet, the two big names of French opera (after the obvious Bizet).

So keep this in mind when I write a “review” that it is hard to objectively judge something that you literally hear for the first time and have no reference in mind.

Sabine Deviehle – Mirages – Franz Xaver Roth – Les Siècles – Alexandre Tharaud (Erato 2017)

As mentioned, this is a rather unfamiliar repertoire for me. We start with André Messager, who has an impressive track record managing opera houses (Opéra Comique, Covent Garden, Opéra de Paris), but also did quite a bit of composing. This starts with an aria from his opera Madame Chrysanthème. from 1893. A beautiful melody if there ever was one. And then you get the angelic (sorry for falling into clichés…) voice of Devielhe, and you get immediate bliss.

Next is an extract from Claude Debussy´s Pelleas et Melisandre, one of the two works of the entire album I actually knew. Unfortunately, very short, beautiful nevertheless.

Lakmé is probably Leo Délibes most famous opera, written in 1880. And yes, even if you’ve never heard the name of the composer, you’ll most likely have come across his Flower Duet, which obviously gets featured on this album as well (we get a total of 3 tracks from Lakmé here, spread accross the album). Why am I so confident you know the Flower Duet? Well, it´s one of those pieces that developed a life on its own in movies and commercials. Don’t believe me? Scroll to 1:05 of this Youtube video:

 

4 consecutive tracks are devoted to Maurice Delage´s Poémes hindous. What? Exactly, no idea. Wikipedia tells me these (composed in 1912) are Delage´s most recorded work. I´ve been collecting classical music for 20+ years now, and I had never heard of the guy. Doesn’t matter, this is beautiful and an excellent discovery!

Another great revelation for me were a number of songs recorded with the great Alexandre Thauraud on piano, from Debussy, Stravinsky, Berlioz, and Koechlin.

Overall, in spite of Devielhe’s outstanding vocal capabilities, this album never turns into impressive self-serving vocal gymnastics, but is a a beautiful window into the French vocal repertoire.

Note to self: I should probably find a replacement adjective for beautiful here, as it pops up wait to often in this review.

Well, if you look up “beautiful” in http://www.thesaurus.com you’ll find, among others, dazzling, delightful, elegant, angelic, bewitching, and radiant. I couldn’t have summarized this album better.

My rating: 5 stars

You can find it here (Qobuz) and here (HDtracks)

P.S. By the way, on this album I haven’t read a single negative review, it gets highest praise from all my typical sources (Gramophone, Classica, etc.).

This will be my last post for 2017, hopefully you’ll stick around and we’ll meet again in 2018!

 

You can find the album here (Qobuz) and here (AcousticSounds)