Mélodies d'ailleurs

Mélodies d’ailleurs

This album brings together favourite songs from our more than ten years of concert activity and thus provides a very personal insight into our work. The fragility of the music, of the voice, becomes apparent in the Lied. No hiding behind virtuosity or drama, but reduction to the intimate line-up of the duo, to simple musical gestures. The expression of the feelings and moods of the individual pieces takes center stage, allowing for vulnerability and giving room to the beauty of the language.

The title Mélodies d’ailleurs plays with the double meaning of the word mélodie, as an umbrella term for the genre of French song in the 19th century, and in its literal meaning melody. These “songs of yesteryear” tell of times gone by. As interpreters of classical music, we bring stories and melodies from earlier eras into the present day, bringing works by long-dead composers to life. By recording this album, the songs collected here also capture a moment in our lives and will outlast us performers.

It was important to us to create a contrast alongside the romantic and impressionist music by incorporating contemporary pieces. Wolfgang Rihm’s pieces bring a new level in gesture, language and of course in the character of the music, yet they are also highly emotional. They allow us to hear the older works in a new way. It is remarkable that the newest music uses the oldest texts: While Debussy, Chausson, Chaminade and Hahn set poets living in their time to music, Rihm used the original Shakespeare texts.

The texts of the Ariettes oubliées were written by Paul Verlaine. The poems were published in 1874, when Verlaine was in prison for shooting at his lover, the poet Arthur Rimbaud. Claude Debussy’s setting of the texts was published in 1888. He dedicated them to Marie-Blanche Vasnier, the wife of his patron and a talented soprano, with whom he was secretly in love - or so it is assumed: both the texts and the music are characterized by the experiences of (unfulfilled) love.

However, the publication of the score in 1888 did not generate much response. It was not until 15 years later, after Debussy had achieved great success with his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, that the songs were reprinted. Because almost nobody had shown interest in the song cycle before this success, Debussy now called the pieces Ariettes oubliées (forgotten songs).

The first song, C’est l’extase, describes the fatigue amoureuse (probably also to be understood as exhaustion after sex), but also an indefinite longing.

Il pleure dans mon cœur expresses a diffuse sadness. The piano takes up the play on words pleurer/pleuvoir (to cry/to rain) and lets a steady rain trickle down, interrupted only for the moment when the narrator realizes that there is no reason for her pain.

The following song, L’ombre des arbres, paints a gloomy picture: the disappearing reflection of the trees in the water symbolizes “drowned” hope.

Paysages belges describes a fairground scene inspired by a trip Verlaine and Rimbaud took to Belgium. It is the liveliest piece in the cycle and describes the dizziness of a carousel spinning faster and faster, clearly audible in the fast-paced piano part. But behind the exuberant festive mood, sadness is already lurking again, the church bell rings and the lively company disperses as dusk falls.

Green is a tender, fragile depiction of love. The rhythmic interweaving creates a feeling of instability, of diffuseness. When the two lovers fall asleep at the end, however, the voice and piano come to rest.

Spleen describes a mood that was central to the zeitgeist of the time: a diffuse feeling of discomfort, weakness and suffering, also known as ennui or esprit bleu, typical of la fin de siècle. We encounter this mood repeatedly in the songs. Spleen begins with an initially monophonic melody in the piano, after which the singing voice enters almost speaking, unaccompanied, on one note. However, a dramatic and torn quality soon develops, expressing the fear of being abandoned by the beloved. The cycle ends with the barely audible sigh Hélas! (Alas!).

The dreamy, romantic soundscape is disrupted by the Ophelia songs by Wolfgang Rihm (*1952 in Karlsruhe), one of the most renowned contemporary composers. Rihm’s extensive compositional oeuvre also includes numerous pieces for voice. His cycle Ophelia sings I-III (2012) testifies to his deep understanding of the singing voice: The part is technically very demanding, requires rapid changes in register, dynamics and gesture, covering a broad range, yet always maintaining a vocal line and lyrical expressiveness. The piano part also includes spoken interjections.

Rihm set the original Shakespeare texts to music, which show Ophelia’s inner turmoil as she is broken by Hamlet’s behaviour and ends in madness. The three songs do not appear on our album in the order originally intended, but are embedded as transitions between the romantic resp. impressionist song blocks, whereby we have paid attention to harmonious transitions (e.g. No. I ends with motif c’’-b’ in the voice part, the subsequent song Apaisement begins with c’’’-b’’ in the piano part).

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) was a composer and pianist. Many artists met in his salon in Paris, including Debussy, whom Chausson also supported financially. He developed his very own musical language. His songs are simpler, less dense than Debussy’s compositions. As can be seen from his surviving diaries, Chausson was very introverted throughout his life and had great self-doubt. While his oeuvre is not very extensive, songs occupy an important place in it. This may also be due to the fact that he died at the age of 44 when he crashed his bicycle into a wall. It has never been fully clarified whether this was an accident or suicide.

Chausson composed the four songs of op.13 in 1885-87: Apaisement after Verlaine is kept quite simple. To a sighing motif in the piano, the rather low voice describes a dreamy mood, only to soar upwards towards the end (c’est l’heure exquise).

In Sérénade, Chausson›s very own harmonic language is expressed well: the piece toggles back and forth between extended E major and F major sounds.

L’Aveu is a (love) confession, but in a mysterious mood, alternating between sustained and more flowing passages.

The cycle concludes with the lively Cigale, a hymn to the cicada, which is honoured by the muses and was made immortal by Zeus.

The song Hébé, which we have added to the cycle, also has a reference to Greek mythology: Hébé is the child-goddess who pours out the nectar of eternal youth. The song is moving in its simple, melancholy way.

In addition to several works for larger ensembles, Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944) wrote many pieces for solo piano and over a hundred songs. She was a successful pianist herself, which is evident in the piano part of the songs. Her songs are beautiful miniatures, sometimes playful and bubbling with energy, then again very intimate and thoughtful.

Thanks to her Parisian neighbour Georges Bizet, the 8-year-old Cécile received composition lessons. Although Cécile’s father later opposed her studying at the conservatory because it was “unseemly” for a woman, he was unable to stop his daughter’s career. She enjoyed great success during her lifetime, particularly in England and the USA. This is unusual, as many obstacles were placed in the way of female composers at the time, so that quite a few decided to publish their works under male pseudonyms.

Alleluia describes spring and also refers to a reawakening of love. The short, exuberant piece ends with the advice that we should keep our love(s) in order to preserve our (inner?) youth.

In Ma première lettre, the narrator finds a letter in a child’s handwriting - and realizes that she must have written the letter herself. However, despite her best efforts, she cannot remember it. This forgetfulness makes her wonder: will she one day forget her first love letter?

La lune paresseuse sets a nocturnal scene to music as an ode to the moon, which is initially hidden behind clouds. The song displays a variety of tonal colours.

We encounter a distinctly different mood in Villanelle: the harvest festival is coming up and people dance until the morning.

The songs by Reynaldo Hahn (1874 - 1947) captivate with their musical simplicity and create a magical atmosphere. The composer was born in Caracas, Venezuela, later moved to Paris, where he studied and worked as a music critic and conductor in addition to his compositional activities. He composed a lot for voice, whether in operas, operettas, sacred vocal music or in his songs.

A Chloris is one of Hahn’s better-known pieces. It tells of hopeful love.

Pholoé deals with a rather unusual subject: ageing. The narrator speaks to Pholoé and reminds her that festivities will pass, that silver will inevitably streak our hair, that the red of our lips will fade.

Si mes vers avaient des ailes, based on a text by Victor Hugo, was written by Hahn at the age of 13. Like L’Énamourée, it was published in a first collection of songs in 1896. While Si mes vers is kept simple and intimate, L’Énamourée reveals an almost operatic gesture.

The final song is the enchantingly simple L’heure exquise. The text, an untitled poem by Verlaine, appears on this album in its second setting (after Chausson’s Apaisement). This closes the loop to the Ariettes oubliées, also written by Verlaine.

Viviane Hasler, Luzern 2024

Recorded September 11–14, 2023

Location: Orchesterhaus des Luzerner Sinfonieorchesters, Kriens
Balance engineer & recording producer: Jonas Niederstadt
Booklet text: Viviane Hasler
Song text translation: Viviane Hasler with deepl.com
Cover photography: Dominique Huwyler
Booklet photography: Jonas Niederstadt

Produced by Jonas Niederstadt

© 2024 Carpe Diem Records