Debussy Songs

Hugues Cuenod was born in Vevey, Switzerland in 1902. His initial musical studies were made in Lausanne, and at the Conservatoires of Geneva and Bale but it was only later in Vienna that studies with Mme Singer-Burian turned his bass baritone voice into a lighter tenor. He gave his debut recital in Paris in 1928: it was the start of an international recital and operatic career which has made Cuenod a legend in his own lifetime.

This selection covers examples of Debussy's song writing from Nuit d'étoiles (1876) to the Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (1913) so the pieces broadly cover the three creative periods, immaturity, maturity and the onset of the decline of the last few years of his life. By means of his uncanny power of evocation, romance, eroticism, sentiment, natural beauty and above all human reaction to them all, are exposed and transformed with enchanting clarity.