French Songs: from la belle époque to les années folles

“This is an enterprising and well planned disc of some of the more unusual French Mélodies. Songs from the older generation as represented by Caplet and Ravel bookend those of the younger as represented by Honegger and Milhaud.” Stuart Sillitoe, musicweb-international.com

These delightful recordings by London-born baritone Simon Wallfisch and the excellent pianist feature unusual French music ‘from la belle epoque to les anne folle’. There are songs by André Caplet (Nuit d’Automne, “Quand reverrai-je, hélas!...”, Le croix Douloureuse and the amusing Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine), Arthur Honegger (the brilliant Six Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire and Trois Poèmes de Paul Fort) and Darius Milhaud’s Les Soirées de Pétrograde (twelve miniature poems by René Chalupt). The disc ends with a performance of Maurice Ravel’s masterful Chansons madécasses, a collection of three songs ("Nahandove", "Aoua" and "Il est doux") written between 1925 and 1926 for voice (mezzo-soprano or baritone), flute, cello and piano, with words by the poet Évariste de Parny. The musicians here also include Efrain Oscher (flute) and Raphael Wallfisch (cello). Simon Wallfisch was born into a family of musicians and began playing the cello aged 5 before going on to study cello and voice as a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music, during which time (2000-2006) he was awarded several prizes including from Royal Overseas League, Countess of Munster and English Speaking Union. Edward Rushton studied piano and composition at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, before reading music at King’s College, Cambridge and then composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. newclassics.co.uk