I have for a long time loved the voice
of the French soprano Véronique Gens. Her voice lacks that
screechiness that afflicts many sopranos, and she has superb diction,
a quality somewhat rare in many of her sister sopranos where, all too
often, it can take you five minutes just to recognise in what
language they are singing — French, German, Italian, or Serbo-Croat
— let alone what are the words. Even my other favourite sopranos
such as Sandrine Piau and Carolyn Sampson do not have Ms. Gens' power
of clear diction.
Her latest CD is superb: 14 tracks (11
of them sung) from French mélodie repertoire. Now in her 50s,
she sings beautifully. Taking a cue from Chausson's Chanson
Perpétuelle that was scored for voice plus piano and string
quartet, pretty well all the mélodies on this CD have the
same piano quintet accompaniment (from I Giardini, and transcribed by
Alexandre Dratwicki). This works very well indeed. A simple piano
accompaniment for over an hour can lack colour and variety; an orchestral
accompaniment can detract from the vocal line. A piano quintet
provides exactly the right amount of support, variety and colour, to my mind.
Most of the composers here are well-known, with a few exceptions such
as Guy Ropartz and André Messager, and the inclusion of Marcel
Louiguy's La Vie en Rose (famous from Edith Piaf) is a nice
touch. I fear that, although it is still only April, another strong
candidate for my Record of the Year has emerged. I am still on
auto-buy for anything sung by Véronique Gens.
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