Soprano Shudong Braamse presents a selection of Romantic French art songs, illustrating Massenet's arresting motives, graceful vocal lines, and well-placed accompaniments. Exhibiting Massenet's meticulous style, Braamse creates tender and dynamic imagery, intertwining punctuated piano lines with her sensitive voice, which suggests the colors of a clarinet, while turbulent textures denote climactic moments of emotion. Massenet enriches motives and themes with the incorporation of religious scenes and the evocations of remote locales in works such as the austere Le Petit Je'sus and exotic Chanson and a louse. In a critique of the evolution of Massenet's operas, Debussy wrote that "[the composer] surely would have been wiser to go on expressing his genius in delicate colors and whispering melodies and in light airy structures." These melodies provide a glimpse of the supple creativity that Debussy so valued, and the effortless confidence, control, and delicacy Braamse offers Massenet's captivating songs.

Tracklist:

Élégie
Sonnet Payen
Chanson Andalouse
Elle S'en Est Allée!
Le Petit Jésus
No. 2, Musette
Septembre
L'âme Des Oiseaux
Première Danse
Les Yeux Clos
Tout Passe!
Les Extases
Ma Petite Mère A Pleuré
Voix Suprême
Si Vous Vouliez Bien Me Le Dire
L'heureuse Souffrance
Stances
Le Sentier Perdu
Rêverie Sentimentale
Chanson Désespérée
L'amour Pleure
Don César De Bazan: Sevillana (Version For Voice & Piano)

UPC: 896931003179
Label: Navona
Release Date: 1.8.16
Format: CD

Massenet / Braamse / Hulin - Voix Supreme - Melodies of Jules Massenet (CD)