Episode 219. Chants d’Auvergne
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Another episode featuring orchestral songs, these arrangements by the French composer Joseph Canteloube (1879 – 1957), of elaborately orchestrated folk songs from the Auvergne region of France. From the 1960s and beyond these songs have become favorites of sopranos seeking engaging works for voice and orchestra. Canteloube made orchestral arrangements of five different series (or books) of songs published between 1924 and 1955. The songs themselves are, in turn, playful, plangent, tragic, saucy, rustic, and even surprisingly emancipated. In 1930 French soprano Madeleine Grey was the first artist to record the songs. Subsequently the Ukrainian-born Israeli soprano Netania Davrath became the first to take on the entire cycle. Cognoscenti still find her versions to be the most “authentic” among the many excellent renditions available. Other singers that helped put these songs on the map, as it were, include Anna Moffo, Victoria de los Angeles, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Frederica von Stade. All these singers are heard in this episode, which also includes memorable contributions from singers as varied as Dawn Upshaw, Barbra Streisand, Jill Gomez, Marvis Martin, Gérard Souzay, Marni Nixon, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Elly Ameling, Régine Crespin, Arleen Augér, Susan Reed, and others. You may also be quite surprised (I know I was!) to hear the singer that Canteloube most preferred in this repertoire, in a recording accompanied by the composer himself.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Unless otherwise indicated, all selections are from one of the five collections, as noted, of Joseph Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne.
Passo pel prat (Go through the meadow) [Book III, No. 2]. Anna Moffo, Leopold Stokowski, American Symphony Orchestra [1964]
Baïlèro [Book I, No. 2]. Gérard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin [1959]
Deux bourrées. I. N’aï pas ïeu dè mîo (I have no one to love me); II. Lo calhé (The quail). Madeleine Grey, Orchestra conducted by Elie Cohen [1930]
De bon matin je me suis levé (I rose in the early morning) [Chants de France (Auvergne)]. Lucie Daullène, Joseph Canteloube [1949]
La délaissado (The abandoned one) [Series II, No. 4] (arranged for chamber orchestra by Jean-Guy Bailly). Marvis Martin, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Orchestre d’Auvergne [1992]
Pastourelle [Book IV, No. 5] (arranged for chamber ensemble by Sam Feldman). Susan Reed, Instrumental Ensemble [George Reeves, Harry Shulman, Harold Bennett, David Weber, Avron Twerdowsky] [1951]
Brezairola (Lullaby) [Book III, No. 4]. Barbra Streisand, Claus Ogerman, Columbia Symphony Orchestra [1976]
Per l’èfon (For the baby) [Series IV, No. 3]. Nicole Theven, Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Orchestre National de la RTF [live RTF 04.VII.57]
Té, l’can, té (Run, dog, run) [Book V, No. 6]. Bernard Boucheix, Olivier Besnard [2007]
Hé! Beyla-z-y d’au fé! (Hey, give that donkey some hay!) [Book V, No. 4]. Netania Davrath, Orchestra conducted by Pierre de la Roche [1963]
Lou coucut (The cuckoo) [Book IV, No. 6]. Régine Crespin, John Wustman [1966]
O up! [Chants du Languedoc, No. 5]. Elly Ameling, Rudolf Jansen [1986]
Chut, chut [Book IV, No. 4]. Victoria de los Angeles, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, Orchestre Lamoureux [1973]
Quand z’eyro petitoune (When I was a little girl) [Series V, No. 2]. Kiri Te Kanawa, Jeffrey Tate, English Chamber Orchestra [1984]
Uno jionto postouro (A lovely shepherdess) [Book V, No. 7]. Frederica von Stade, Antonio de Almeida, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra [1982]
Postouro, sé tu m’aymo (Shepherdess, if you love me) [Book V, No. 5]. Jill Gomez, Vernon Handley, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [1985]
Lo fiolairé (The spinner) [Book III, No. 1]. Marni Nixon, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic [live 08.IV.61]
Oï, ayaï [Book IV, No. 2]. Dawn Upshaw, Kurt Masur, New York Philharmonic [live II.98]
Jou l’pount d’o Mirabel (By Mirabel Bridge) [Book IV, No. 1]. Arleen Augér, Yan Pascal Tortelier, English Chamber Orchestra [1988]
La pastrouletta è lou chibalie (The shepherdess and the lad) [Book II, No. 3]. Netania Davrath, Orchestra conducted by Pierre de la Roche [1963]
Malurous qu’o uno fenno (Miserable is he who has a wife) [Book III, No. 5]. Anna Caterina Antonacci, François-Xavier Roth, BBC National Orchestra of Wales [live London 2010]