Véronique Gens: Paysage
Alpha Classics

Few can match soprano Véronique Gens' achievements: in addition to appearing on more than eighty recordings and performing on the globe's most renowned concert and opera stages, she's also a Chevalier of the French Order of the Légion d'honneur, a Commandeur in the Order of Arts and Letters, and an Officer of the French Order of Merit. This nearly hour-long recital of orchestral songs of the French Romantic tradition presents all the evidence one needs to appreciate why she's received the honours she has: Paysage is vocal artistry of the highest order, with the performances showing Gens' consummate command of the material.

She couldn't have asked for more sympathetic partners than conductor Hervé Niquet, regarded as a specialist in French repertoire, and the Munich Radio Orchestra (Münchner Rundfunkorchester), whose sensitive attunement to her exquisite voice enhances the performances significantly. In presenting a vocal recital featuring material by Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Chausson, Gounod, Hahn, and Dubois, Gens and her collaborators make the strongest possible argument on behalf of the orchestral song. Adding to the recording's appeal, engrossing instrumental settings by Massenet, Fauré, Dubois, and Fernand de La Tombelle are interspersed.

While a release comprising twenty-two songs might sound like a lot, those on Paysage are for the most part miniatures of two to three minutes duration. No time is wasted as composers rapidly set the scene, be it in the countryside or the city and in France, Brittany, or Persia, and establish the song's emotional temperature with dispatch. Feelings of anguish, joy, and longing are summoned with immediacy and expressed with directness by the performers. It's no surprise that the French orchestral song exemplifies refinement in the restraint with which the instrumental forces accompany the singer. Never is Gens overpowered; instead, she's joined by a chamber-styled orchestra whose strings, woodwinds, horns, and harp play with unerring delicacy.

Paysage argues by implication that the music of Théodore Dubois has been unjustly neglected, and Gens and company do their part to right that wrong by including six pieces by him. Others are represented by multiple works too, Fauré four, Hahn three, Saint-Saëns two, and so on. Gens' glorious voice is well-served by Dubois' “Celui que j'aime,” especially when it's supported by the orchestra's lustrous textures. “Paysage” by Proust's friend Hahn is less epic than Dubois' opener but exquisite nonetheless, and presents another instance where Niquet calibrates the volume of the orchestra to enhance but not compete with the singer.

Any number of songs illustrate Gens' vocal gifts, be it the graceful nuance of her delivery in Fauré's gorgeously orchestrated “Clair de lune” or the precision with which she navigates the shifting melodic terrain of Saint-Saëns' “La Splendeur vide.” It would be hard to imagine anyone bettering her rendition of Chausson's elegiac “Les Morts,” Hahn's “Mai,” or Saint-Saëns' “Aimons-nous.” Gounod's “La Fauvette” exudes an irresistibly infectious spirit of carefree abandon; his “Clos ta paupière,” by comparison, conveys all the sweetness and affection one would expect from a mother's tender lullaby.

June 2024