Poèmes de l'Amour

Ernest Chausson (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Maurice Ravel (Composer), Yan Pascal Tortelier (Conductor), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Susan Graham (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Susan Graham
• Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Yan Pascal Tortelier
• Composer: Ernest Chausson, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel
• Audio CD (March 29, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Classics
• ASIN: B0007GADUY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,821 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #53 in Music > Miscellaneous > Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews > Poetry

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Sheer Luxury of Beauty of Voice and Technique!, March 29, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poèmes de l'Amour (Audio CD)

Susan Graham continues to grow as an artist, both in her inimitable operatic performances but especially in her warmly human and bracingly communicative recitals with piano collaboration. With this very beautiful recording of songs cycles by Chausson, Ravel and Debussy she combines the two - operatic and recital - and the result is some of the most stunning collaborations with voice and orchestra on CD today. Gush? Well, just listen to this well-conceived disc and try to escape the trance of enchantment.

The Chausson 'Poeme de l'amour et de la mer' is a series of heavily orchestrated songs whose protagonist is a young man who meets and falls in love with a girl and returns a year later to discover the girl no longer is moved by him - not unlike the doubt, lust, longing and memory of Resnais' film 'Last Year at Marienbad'. Graham communicates the longing and ecstasy and ultimate devastation of the young man with intense feeling and gorgeous rich sound. Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra with sonorous swells of sound that never bury the voice and never completely give in to the excesses in Chausson's writing.

Best known of the works on this recording is the 'Sheherazade ' of Maurice Ravel. Here, moving among the three songs well known to every concertgoer, Graham demonstrates her seamless range of tone and color: though a mezzo-soprano by range she transports her gorgeous instrument into the realm of soprano with complete ease. Her French diction is perfect and she makes the poems come alive. If this reading does not erase all memories of such singers as Regine Crespin or Victoria de los Angeles as far as breathy French sensuousness, the uncanny beauty of her sound and her immersion in the texts creates a new standard. 'La Flute enchantee' is from another place of rarefied air!

The Debussy songs 'Le Livre de Baudelaire' are here performed with a new orchestration by contemporary composer John Adams! And if you fear that may be an incongruous pairing then fear not. The orchestral writing is in total sync with Debussy's haunting line. Graham again delivers lush, creamy tone with a true 'French sound'. It simply works.

Apart from the beauty of Susan Graham's artistry and Tortelier's sensitive collaboration the major contribution of this recording is in the thoughtful programming - three cycles by three French composers whose lives overlapped. This is the degree of challenging and rewarding ventures that will maintain the importance of classical music recordings. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 05

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Graham Enwrapped in Unwavering Romanticism, April 23, 2005

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poèmes de l'Amour (Audio CD)

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham gave an impressive performance last year as Dido, capturing the woman behind the mythical figure with measured fervor, among a heady group of singers on last year's superb ensemble recording of Emmanuelle Haïm's production of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas". In this solo outing, she displays the same dramatic acumen and showcases her lustrous voice with a full-bodied French repertoire which features selections from Chausson, Ravel and Debussy. The result certainly reflects the same exclusive talent pool as the recent stellar recordings of French compositions by rising tenor Rolando Villazón on his "Gounod/Massenet Arias" and the exquisite countertenor David Daniels on his "Berlioz: Les Nuits d'Été".

Where Graham falls somewhat short among this league is in the relative sameness of the program, which reflects a conscious decision to explore the more serious Belle Epoque fare for soprano and orchestra. Granted all three song cycles are lovely and sonorous, but together the variety seems lacking for a singer of Graham's caliber, and one ends up missing a lighter touch to offset the somber tone. Things start promisingly with Ernest Chausson's "Poèmes de l'amour et de la mer", a luscious work that evokes an engaging seductive power over a wide range of emotions. It also includes a soaring dream-like interlude. Maurice Ravel's "Shéhérazade," is performed colorfully with a swooning sense of epic melodrama that wouldn't sound out of place in a 1950's Douglas Sirk movie. John Adams contributed the hushed orchestrations for four of Claude Debussy's set of "Cinq Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire" presented here, all performed languorously with a discernible sense of longing. One or two lighter chansons could have lightened this program considerably, and they would have been welcome. Also, at certain moments, the sound feels heavily overproduced. Regardless, Graham is among the finest singers today and always a treat to hear and appreciate and she is supported in a most atmospheric fashion by the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Operatic chill-out, April 3, 2008

By 

Robert G. Leroe (Saugus, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poèmes de l'Amour (Audio CD)

I love opera, and I'm well aware how people who don't like it think--they characterize opera singers as glass-breakers. This is the best recording I've heard that breaks that stereotype. The best word I can think of to describe this recording is "tranquil". There are dramatic moments, but overall I regard this as music to relax by. I saw Susan Graham in the DVD the Trojans (Berlioz) and was impressed with her singing. By now you know I don't know much about the technical aspects of operatic singing, I just know what pleases my ear. Isn't that what music is supposed to do? For those of you who simply appreciate beautiful music, this is a wonderful recording--period. I just want to add my "two cents", and while I can't appraise a singer's technique, I certainly appreciate the beauty of this CD.