Exquisite Hour Booklet

476 5282
Let us dream! This is the moment...
A vast, tender
calmness
seems to be descending
from the heavens
iridescent with stars...
This is the exquisite hour.
GABRIEL FAURÉ
REYNALDO HAHN 1875-1947
1 A Chloris (To Chloris)
3’11
$ Après un rêve (After a Dream), Op. 7 No. 1
2’58
% Soupir (Sigh)
2’27
^ Infidélité (Infidelity)
3’17
2’45
& Chanson écossaise (Scottish Song)
3’05
HENRI DUPARC 1848-1933
GABRIEL FAURÉ 1845-1924
2 Clair de lune (Moonlight), Op. 46 No. 2
3’30
REYNALDO HAHN
GEORGES BIZET 1838-1875
3 Chanson d’avril (April Song)
2’44
MAURICE RAVEL 1875-1937
REYNALDO HAHN
4 L’Enamourée (The Adored One)
5 L’Heure exquise (The Exquisite Hour)
GABRIEL FAURÉ
Poème d’un jour (Poem of a Day), Op. 21
6 Rencontre (Meeting)
7 Toujours (Forever)
8 Adieu (Farewell)
ANONYMOUS
* L’Amour de moi (My Love)
( Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
2’30
1’11
2’25
CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862-1938
9 Romance – L’Ame évaporée et souffrante
(The Spent and Suffering Soul)
2’09
JULES MASSENET 1842-1912
0 Elégie (Elegy)
2’34
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 1835-1921
! Aimons-nous (Let Us Love One Another)
4’15
CHARLES KOECHLIN 1867-1950
@ Si tu le veux (If You’d Like To), Op. 5 No. 5
2’35
1’36
2’03
(Sweetheart, Let Us Go and See if the Rose)
) Laissez-moi planter le mai (Let Me Come A-Courting)
MAURICE RAVEL
¡ Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis (Three Lovely Birds of Paradise)
2’55
HENRI DUPARC
™ Extase (Ecstasy)
3’42
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
# Mandoline (Mandolin)
1’30
FRANCIS POULENC 1899-1963
Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon (Two Poems by Louis Aragon), Op. 122
¢ C
2’47
∞ Fêtes galantes (Courtly Entertainment)
0’55
Total Playing Time
GEORGES BIZET
£ Absence
4’39
David Hobson tenor
David McSkimming piano
2
2’10
1’48
3
68’09
A French Song Recital
You called me and I left the earth
to fly away with you towards the light.
The heavens for us opened a little to reveal
their unknown, naked splendours,
glimpses of divine light...
4
French song in the 19th and
early 20th centuries
From Renaissance times onwards French vocal
music has displayed a character of its own quite
different from that of other countries. The French
language itself was undoubtedly a major part of
the reason for this difference, together with
what seems to have been a natural impulse on
the part of a cultivated society to regard music
as a relaxing diversion from serious intellectual
and political concerns. A preference for music
that is elegant, charming and suave is a French
trait, with hints also of good-natured humour –
particularly in the earlier period and in some of
the songs of the early 20th century. The French
chansons of the Renaissance (from which are
taken three of the anonymous songs on this
program) are in contrast to the intense fervour of
the late 16th-century Italian madrigal, as are the
courtly French airs of the next century different
from the Italian arias of that same period. So,
too, 19th-century French song usually retains an
essentially gallic expression, despite the
profound influence of Schubert’s songs at the
time its Romantic character was being formed.
Because most of the works in this recital come
from the 19th and early 20th centuries, it may
be useful to comment on the development of
French song during this period.
Most of the songs in this program are of the
kind which the French call mélodie, a word as
ambiguous as its German counterpart, the Lied.
Yet through usage both words have come to be
associated with particular styles of 19th-century
Romantic song. While the term Lieder in
Germany enjoyed currency from the 18thcentury onwards, that of mélodie only came into
fashion in France after 1830, probably as a result
of Berlioz’s Neuf mélodies of that year in which
he set translated texts of some of Thomas
Moore’s Irish Melodies. Before that time the
songs heard in the drawing-rooms and
fashionable salons in Paris were the so-called
romances. Characterised by tender lyricism, they
were essentially strophic (or verse-repeating) in
form and their musical style was that of the
previous century – the Classical period
dominated by Haydn and Mozart – but in its
simplest and most unremarkable manner. They
were often wedded to mawkishly sentimental
texts, with no hint of anything that could offend
prudish taste. Originality had no place in the
‘pure-blood’ romance. Yet it was the startingpoint of Romantic French song that was to reach
its apogee in the mélodies of Fauré, Duparc and
Debussy. To understand this we need to look at
the influences that were to transform the simple
romance into the more sophisticated mélodie.
5
As the Lied was inspired by German Romantic
poetry, so too did French song blossom at a time
when French poets were flinging aside the
centuries-old conventions of classical poetry,
creating a style which caught the spirit of the
new age – that of romantisme. The poet
Lamartine rejoiced that he had brought poetry
‘down from Parnassus, and in place of a sevenstringed lyre had given to the so-called muse,
the very cords of man’s heart, touched and set in
motion by the countless tremblings of the soul
and of nature.’ If it was Lamartine who extended
poetic vocabulary well beyond the limitations
which had been placed upon it by classical
writers from the 17th century onwards, it was
Victor Hugo, de Musset and others who created
new forms to carry the fervent message of the
new school of French Romantic poetry. One of
the earliest composers to respond to the poetic
stimulus was the Swiss-born Louis Niedermeyer
whose beautiful setting of Lamartine’s Le Lac
(The Lake), published in Paris shortly after the
composer’s arrival there in 1823, was later hailed
by Saint-Saëns as marking out the path for
Gounod and all who followed.
society with its description of the pale brown
breasts of the Andalusian woman, also alienated
conservative poets by introducing words
strikingly new to the form and upsetting the
smooth euphony that had been the feature of
the classical style. Monpou’s setting underlined
the spirit of the poem through its strumming
bolero rhythm, its cross-accents and some
striking dissonances. The romance had never
seen the like! So, too, did Berlioz’s earliest songs
set the romance in a new direction. While
traditional romances continued to pour out by
the thousands until mid-century – to meet the
demand of drawing-room recitalists and their
chosen audiences – the more serious-minded
composers were becoming aware that there
could be more to the simple form than its tender
and mellifluous melodies. The romance was on
its way to a transformation. The most powerful
influence on it and on French song generally,
however, was to come from abroad when
Parisians discovered the songs of Schubert.
It was the celebrated French opera singer
Adolphe Nourrit who first championed Schubert’s
songs in France during the early 1830s. Nourrit’s
biographer describes how the singer came in
late to a salon where Liszt was playing his
arrangement of Erlkönig and was so overcome
by the force of the music that he asked for it to
be played again. To which Liszt replied: ‘Why
don’t you sing it?’ From there on Nourrit seized
every opportunity to sing Schubert’s songs (in
A striking example of the parallel changes in
French poetry and French song is found in a
romance by the almost forgotten Hippolyte
Monpou (a composer whom the French writer
Gautier placed alongside Berlioz as being one of
the first Romantic composers in France). De
Musset’s poem L’Andalouse, scandalising polite
6
French), inspiring a number of other fine French
singers to do the same. At this same time the
Parisian music publisher Richaut signed a
contract with the late composer’s publisher
Diabelli that enabled him to publish all
Schubert’s available songs in a French edition,
including all the words in translation.
Performances – and now all the available scores
– led to a wide appreciation of Schubert’s songs
in France. Indeed, it was the first country
outside the German-speaking ones to champion
them. Inevitably this had a profound influence
over song writing in France. To be called ‘the
French Schubert’ (as were at least three
composers) was an enviable soubriquet! The
encounter with Schubert’s songs led to a more
expanded vocal line, greater harmonic warmth
and more interesting piano accompaniments. Yet
the hallmark of the romance – its mellifluous
lyricism – remained intact. It’s not surprising that
this led to considerable overlap in terminology.
The more imaginative and subtle songs were
usually called mélodies, the simpler ones
romances. Some of the more demanding songs
were even called Lieder! Different terminology
was quite often applied to the same song – an
understandable confusion in a genre in which
there was a mixture of elements. Generally,
however, the term mélodie became more and
more associated with songs of real artistic
worth, whether simple or subtle.
extraordinarily rich repertoire of those which
preceded them – by Louis Niedermeyer, Victor
Massé, Félicien David, Camille Saint-Saëns,
Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, Edouard Lalo,
Jules Massenet and others. These composers,
usually known better for their more extended
works, produced some of the fine flowers of
Romantic French song. They developed the
garden in which grew the rarefied blooms of the
later generation of composers mentioned above.
The poet Baudelaire once described the
Beautiful as quelque chose d’ardent et de triste,
quelque chose d’un peu vague, laissant carrière
à la conjecture…Le mystère, le regret sont aussi
des caractères du Beau: ‘something passionate
and sad, something a little vague, leaving room
for conjecture… Mystery and regret are also
characteristics of the Beautiful’ (Journaux
intimes). Nothing could better describe the
atmosphere of the songs created by Fauré,
Duparc and Debussy during the last two
decades of the 19th century. Yet some
composers, notably Koechlin and Hahn, were
content to continue in the style of the earlier
Romantic French songs, creating attractive lyrical
works that still enchant their audiences today. In
contrast, Maurice Ravel took his starting point
not from Massenet or Saint-Saëns, but from
Debussy, investing the latter’s style, however,
with sharper edges and more piercing, yet
exquisite, dissonances.
The wonderful songs of Fauré, Duparc and
Debussy have tended to overshadow the
7
The songs and their composers
The youngest of the composers represented in
this recital is Francis Poulenc, who, though not
an ‘avant-gardist’, belongs more firmly in the
20th century than do the others already
mentioned. An indication of the changed artistic
climate in the early 20th century lies in many of
the texts by writers such as Cocteau, Apollinaire,
Collette and Aragon and others associated with
the modern trends of that time. Gone are the
scenes of swooning or betrayed lovers and
moonlit gardens. In their place may be satirical,
ironic or even surrealist texts, some of which
Poulenc chose to set. Yet like his teacher
Koechlin (to whom he turned to develop his
technical skills), Poulenc still regarded melody as
the chief element of song.
The three ‘Anonymous’ songs on this recording
are modern arrangements for voice and piano of
melodies from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries
that were originally published either for solo
voice (with or without lute accompaniment) or
for vocal ensemble. Melodies such as L’Amour
de moi and Laissez-moi planter le mai are
found in many collections of the day, most
usually without the name of a composer. The
most famous text of the three is Mignonne,
allons voir si la rose by the 16th-century French
poet Pierre Ronsard, which was set to music a
number of times. The melody sung here comes
from a collection of anonymous popular tunes
called voix de ville published in 1576.
French mélodie is usually regarded as the
counterpart to German Lieder, and in a general
sense this is true. However, whereas Lieder
scarcely ever left the portals of high art, mélodie
cast many a look – in the 19th century, at the
source which nurtured it, the salon, and in the
early 20th century, at the cabaret. Yet, so
tastefully were these reconciled that one must
grant to French song the attribute of real art
throughout its long and varied development. It
presents us with music that can touch our heart
profoundly or our nerves sensuously, offer us
smiling charm or – unashamedly – delightful and
sometimes satirical entertainment. What more
can one want!
Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet were
the towering figures who established French
Romantic song – hovering as it did between
romance and mélodie – as an art-form to be
taken seriously. During their long careers songwriting occupied them from their earliest to their
last years, and some of their songs have
established such a place in the mainstream that
it would hard to imagine the repertoire without
them. Not only did their songs exert a strong
influence on other composers, they themselves
as teachers moulded the style of many a young
composer. Fauré was a student of Saint-Saëns
and Hahn a student of Massenet – to mention
just two of those represented in this program.
The primacy of beautifully shaped melody,
8
perhaps his most famous melody. About the
same time he composed three short songs
under the title of Poème d’un jour: Rencontre,
Toujours and Adieu, the first two heralding the
musical wonders to come with their flowing
accompaniments and breathtakingly beautiful
harmonies underlining the expressive and at
times rapturous vocal lines. The third of these
songs is a witty musical translation of a poem
dealing with the lover comforting himself with
the knowledge that in life – as in love – all things
are transitory.
catching the nuances of the text, can be heard in
the songs of master and student alike. SaintSaëns’ Aimons-nous and Massenet’s Elégie are
perfect examples of French Romantic lyricism.
The seeming modernity of Carmen by Georges
Bizet makes us sometimes forget that he was a
contemporary of Saint-Saëns and Massenet.
A prodigiously gifted pianist, he was drawn to
song-writing early in his career. With a father
well-known as a singing teacher, it is not
surprising that Bizet knew how to write
superbly for the voice. The two songs on this
disc, both in verse-repeating form, were
composed towards the end of his tragically
short life, the passionate longing and hopeless
sadness of Absence forming a stark contrast to
Chanson d’avril with its rustling piano part
accompanying a melody brimming with joy at
the approach of Spring.
The output of songs by Henri Duparc is in
striking contrast to that of his contemporaries.
He composed only thirteen songs – between
1868 and 1884 – after which he abandoned
composition altogether. Duparc’s long life was
blighted by a neurasthenic condition, which,
however, seems to have heightened his
sensitivity to words and music. His style is
invariably linked to that of Fauré and Debussy.
Yet, as well as sharing elements with their
songs, Duparc’s also reflect his love of Wagner’s
music, as in the touches of chromatic harmony
in Soupir. Extase, however, is unmistakably
French in inspiration, evoking the scene of the
lover in a trance-like ecstasy as he rests upon
his beloved’s breast.
Gabriel Fauré was only ten years younger than
his teacher Saint-Saëns. Not surprisingly, his
early songs were charming romances, but as his
musical gifts developed so this style was
gradually transformed into mélodies of striking
originality. By the 1880s he was composing
those works which are amongst the best-loved
songs of the French repertoire, such as Clair de
lune, its piano part outlining a melody which
rivals that of the voice. It was just before this
time that he composed a song to an anonymous
Italian text Levati sol que la luna è levata
translated by Bussine as Après un rêve,
With the songs of Claude Debussy we come to
an even more rarefied world of musical
sensation, although the two songs presented
here were composed just before his unique
9
explorations into combining word with note. Like
all French song writers of the period Debussy
was indebted to the romance style in his earliest
pieces, which gradually assumed more subtlety
and sophistication. It was in 1882 through his
setting of Mandoline by Verlaine (who was to
inspire some of the composer’s finest songs)
that Debussy sounded a more individual note. A
Watteau-like scene of mandolin players
surrounded by lovers – some elegantly dressed,
some like nymphs with their shepherds, the
vibrant night air alive with expectant pleasures
and – surely with such lively rhythms – dancing.
Though written three years later, his Romance
(L’âme évaporée et souffrante) returns to the
earlier style.
taste. In a series of lectures he gave at the
Université des Annales during 1913-14 he stated
that ‘what constitutes the true beauty, prize and
purpose of song is the indissoluble union of
sound and thought.’ He reached this ideal, not
through the innovative techniques of Fauré and
Debussy, but through the models of his teacher
Massenet. In the first of the four Hahn songs on
this disc (A Chloris – to a poem by the late
Renaissance poet Théophile de Viau) the nobility
of the vocal line, reflecting the lover’s reverence
for his beloved, is heightened by a Bach-like
adagio set against it in the piano part. The
nostalgia of the other songs – L’Enamourée,
L’Heure exquise and Infidélité – further reveals
Hahn’s gift for catching the mood of the texts
and for creating extremely beautiful, if
conventional, songs.
Charles Koechlin studied composition at the
Paris Conservatoire first under Massenet and
then under Fauré. It is not surprising then that
his first pieces were songs in the style of the
mid-century Romantic tradition, as found in Si tu
le veux. It was composed around 1897 at the
beginning of a long period of song-writing, with
no hint of the far more complex style evident in
the orchestral works which made his reputation
later in his long life.
Over ten years younger than Debussy, Maurice
Ravel developed a personal – and very French –
style. Although, in reference to his Histoires
naturelles (1906), he once claimed that in
performance the singer should give the
impression of reciting rather than singing, his
musical interests were so wide and his
technique so assured he could move effortlessly
from one style to another as appropriate. In 1910
he competed in an international competition
organised by the Maison du Lied in Moscow for
arrangements of folksongs. He submitted seven
arrangements, four of which (Spanish, French,
Italian and Hebraic folksongs) were awarded
Although Reynaldo Hahn was Venezuelan by
birth he was brought up in the French capital
and was Parisian in every sense. A pianist,
singer and composer, his large circle of artistic
friends included leading poets and actors, so it is
not surprising that his songs reveal fastidious
10
fast’. Perhaps, too, this song is as
quintessentially French as the earlier songs in
this program, exchanging the now-lost tradition
of the salon for a modern gallic institution – the
cabaret or café chanson. Also by Louis Aragon is
the curiously entitled song C, set to a poem
called Les Ponts de Cé (The Bridges of Cé, a
small town in the Loire Valley). The text tells of
songs, from ancient times to the present, that
sang of countless armies which tramped over
these bridges, leaving behind scenes of
desolation each time. Perhaps its message is all
the more telling and universal because the
music catches something of the popular style,
not in its rhythm, but in the sophisticated and
lush chords that are found so often in the scores
of Gershwin and others. The deserved success
of Poulenc’s songs owes a good deal to Pierre
Bernac, singer and close friend of the composer,
who championed them over many years.
prizes and published first in Moscow and later
in Paris under the title Chants populaires. Of
the remaining three only the Scottish Song,
Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon, has been
published – as late as 1975 – in an edition made
from various sketches found after Ravel’s death.
The accompaniment is delicate, with tiny
brushstrokes of harmony instantly recognisable
by admirers of his music as ‘Ravellian’. Trois
beaux oiseaux du Paradis is another
arrangement, this time of one of his own works:
the middle movement of his Trois Chansons
originally composed for unaccompanied mixed
chorus, set to his own words. He re-arranged it
for solo voice with piano accompaniment. At the
end, one of the three beautiful ‘Birds of
Paradise’ brings a sadly symbolic message to
the girl waiting to hear news of her soldier-lover.
Evoking a haunting melancholy, it is one of those
simple and affecting melodies that could come
from almost any age.
David Tunley
Nothing could better point up the difference
between the songs of Francis Poulenc and those
of his 19th-century predecessors than their
texts. Vanished are the Watteau-like scenes of
courtiers and their beautiful ladies in idealised
rusticity as in Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes (set to
music by both Fauré and Debussy). In Louis
Aragon’s poem of the same name the scene is a
surrealist street of pimps and marquesses on
bicycles and a loud motley of the passing
parade. It’s a patter-song to be sung ‘incredibly
Former Head of the Department of Music at the
University of Western Australia, David Tunley was
elected Professor Emeritus in 1994. His writings
on the French song repertoire include the sixvolume annotated edition Romantic French Song
1830–1870 and the article on Mélodie in the New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. His
book Salons, Singers, and Songs – A Background
to Romantic French Song 1830-1870 was
published in London in 2002.
11
1 A Chloris
To Chloris
If it is true, Chloris, that you love me,
(and I hear that you love me very much,)
then I do not believe that even kings can enjoy
happiness to match mine.
How tiresome would Death be,
coming to exchange my good fortune
for the pleasure of the heavens!
For all they say about ambrosia,
it doesn’t stir my imagination
as does the favour bestowed by your eyes.
S’il est vrai, Chloris, que tu m’aimes,
(Mais j’entends, que tu m’aimes bien,)
Je ne crois pas que les rois mêmes
Aient un bonheur pareil au mien.
Que la mort serait importune
A venir changer ma fortune
Pour la félicité des cieux!
Tout ce qu’on dit de l’ambroisie
Ne touche point ma fantaisie
Au prix des grâces de tes yeux.
Théophile de Viau
3 Chanson d’avril
Comme un regard joyeux, est pleine de soleil!
April Song
Get up! Get up! Spring has just been born!
Over there, over the valleys, floats a tracery
of vermillion!
Everything is trembling in the garden, everything
is singing, and your window,
like a face beaming with joy, is full of sunshine!
Du côté des lilas aux touffes violettes,
Mouches et papillons bruissent à la fois;
Et le muguet sauvage, ébranlant ses clochettes,
A réveillé l’amour endormi dans les bois!
Around the violet-tufted lilacs,
flies and butterflies are humming together;
and the wild lily-of-the-valley, shaking its bells,
has woken love from his sleep in the woods!
Lève-toi! lève-toi! le printemps vient de naître!
Là-bas, sur les vallons, flotte un réseau vermeil!
Tout frissonne au jardin, tout chante et ta fenêtre,
Since April has sown the meadows with her
white daisies,
Laisse ta mante lourde et ton manchon frileux;
leave your heavy coat and your winter muff;
Déjà l’oiseau t’appelle, et tes sœurs les pervenches already the birds are calling to you, and in the grass
Te souriront dans l’herbe en voyant tes yeux bleus! your sisters the periwinkles will smile to see
your blue eyes!
Puisqu’avril a semé ses marguerites blanches,
2 Clair de lune
Jouant du luth et dansant, et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques!
Moonlight
Your soul is a chosen landscape
where mummers and maskers go about
working their magic,
playing the lute and dancing, almost
sad beneath their fantastical disguises!
Tout en chantant, sur le mode mineur,
L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur,
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune!
Even as they sing, in the minor mode,
of love the conqueror and life’s good fortune,
they seem not to believe in their happiness,
and their song mingles with the moonlight!
Au calme clair de lune, triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres,
Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau,
Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres!
...with the calm moonlight, sad and lovely,
which makes the birds dream in the trees
and the arching water sob with ecstasy,
the great, slender jets of water among the
marble statues!
Votre âme est un paysage choisi,
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Paul Verlaine
12
Viens, partons! au matin, la source est plus limpide;
Lève-toi! viens, partons! N’attendons pas du
jour les brûlantes chaleurs;
Je veux mouiller mes pieds dans la rosée humide,
Et te parler d’amour sous les poiriers en fleurs!
Come, let us go! In the morning, the spring is clearer;
Get up! Come, let’s go! Let’s not wait for
the burning heat of the day;
I want to wet my feet in the moist dew,
and speak to you of love beneath the flowering
pear-trees!
Louis Bouilhet
4 L’ Enamourée
The Adored One
They tell themselves, my dove,
that, even dead, you dream
beneath the tombstone:
but for the soul which adores you,
you awaken again to life,
O my pensive beloved!
Ils se disent, ma colombe,
Que tu rêves, morte encore,
Sous la pierre d’une tombe:
Mais pour l’âme qui t’adore,
Tu t’éveilles, ranimée,
O pensive bien-aimée!
13
Par les blanches nuits d’étoiles,
Dans la brise qui murmure,
Je caresse tes longs voiles,
Ta mouvante chevelure,
Et tes ailes demicloses
Qui voltigent sur les roses!
In nights white with stars,
in the murmuring breeze,
I stroke your long veils,
your drifting hair,
and your half-closed wings
fluttering on the roses!
O délices! je respire
Tes divines tresses blondes!
Ta voix pure, cette lyre,
Suit la vague sur les ondes,
Et, suave, les effleure,
Comme un cygne qui se pleure!
O delights! I breathe deeply
of your divine blond tresses!
Your pure voice is a lyre
that follows the swelling waves
and gently ruffles them,
like a weeping swan!
Théodore de Banville
5 L’Heure exquise
La lune blanche
Luit dans les bois;
De chaque branche
Part une voix
Sous la ramée...
O bien-aimée.
The Exquisite Hour
The white moon
shines in the woods;
from each branch
comes a voice
beneath the interlacing branches...
O beloved.
L’étang reflète,
Profond miroir,
La silhouette
Du saule noir
Où le vent pleure...
Rêvons! c’est l’heure...
The lagoon,
a deep mirror,
reflects the silhouette
of the black willow
in whose branches the wind weeps...
Let us dream! This is the moment...
Un vaste et tendre
Apaisement
Semble descendre
Du firmament
Que l’astre irise...
C’est l’heure exquise.
A vast, tender
calmness
seems to be descending
from the heavens
iridescent with stars...
This is the exquisite hour.
Paul Verlaine
14
Poem of a Day
Meeting
I was sad and thoughtful when I met you;
today I feel my stubborn torment less.
Oh tell me, could you be the woman unhoped-for,
and the ideal dream, pursued in vain?
Poème d’un jour
6 Rencontre
J’étais triste et pensif quand je t’ai rencontrée;
Je sens moins aujourd’hui mon obstiné tourment.
O dis-moi, serais-tu la femme inespérée,
Et le rêve idéal poursuivi vainement?
Et vas-tu rayonner sur mon âme affermie,
Comme le ciel natal sur un cœur d’exilé?
O gentle-eyed passer-by, could you be the friend
to bring happiness once again to the poet in
his solitude?
And will you shine on my obdurate soul
as native skies warm a banished heart?
Ta tristesse sauvage, à la mienne pareille,
Aime à voir le soleil décliner sur la mer.
Devant l’immensité ton extase s’éveille,
Et le charme des soirs à ta belle âme est cher.
Your untamed sadness, a mirror to mine,
loves to watch the sun sink over the sea.
Your ecstasy awakens in the face of such immensity,
and evening’s enchantment is dear to your fair soul.
Une mystérieuse et douce sympathie
Déjà m’enchaîne à toi comme un vivant lien,
Et mon âme frémit, par l’amour envahie
Et mon cœur te chérit sans te connaître bien.
Already a soft, mysterious warmth
joins me to you in a living bond
and my soul trembles, overrun by love,
and my heart treasures you, though it barely knows you.
O passante aux doux yeux, serais-tu donc l’amie
Qui rendrait le bonheur au poète isolé?
7 Toujours
Forever
You ask me to hold my tongue,
to flee far from you forever,
and to go away, alone,
without remembering who it was that I loved!
Ask rather the stars
to fall into the void,
the night to lose its dark veils,
the day to lose its brightness;
ask the wide sea
to dry up its vast floods
and, when the winds are at the peak of their madness,
to calm its dark sobbing!
Vous me demandez de me taire,
De fuir loin de vous pour jamais,
Et de m’en aller, solitaire,
Sans me rappeler qui j’aimais!
Demandez plutôt aux étoiles
De tomber dans l’immensité,
A la nuit de perdre ses voiles,
Au jour de perdre sa clarté,
Demandez à la mer immense
De dessécher ses vastes flots,
Et, quand les vents sont en démence,
D’apaiser ses sombres sanglots!
15
But do not hope that my soul
will tear itself free from its bitter sorrows,
and shed its passion
as the spring casts off its flowers!
Mais n’espérez pas que mon âme
S’arrache à ses âpres douleurs,
Et se dépouille de sa flamme
Comme le printemps de ses fleurs!
8 Adieu
Farewell
How quickly everything dies; the rose’s petals
unfurled,
and the fresh, dappled coats
of the fields;
the long sighs, the sweethearts:
puffs of smoke!
In this fickle world, we see them
change
more quickly than the waves on the shore,
our dreams!
More quickly than frost on flowers,
our hearts!
I believed myself true to you,
cruel one,
but alas! The longest loves
are brief!
And as I leave your charms, I say
without tears,
almost at the very moment I confessed my love,
farewell!
Comme tout meurt vite, la rose
Déclose,
Et les frais manteaux diaprés
Des prés;
Les longs soupirs, les bien-aimées,
Fumées!
On voit dans ce monde léger
Changer
Plus vite que les flots des grèves,
Nos rêves!
Plus vite que le givre en fleurs,
Nos cœurs!
A vous l’on se croyait fidèle,
Cruelle,
Mais hélas! les plus longs amours
Sont courts!
Et je dis en quittant vos charmes,
Sans larmes,
Presqu’au moment de mon aveu,
Adieu!
Charles Grandmougin
9 Romance
Romance
The spent and suffering soul,
the gentle soul, the fragrant soul
of the holy lilies I picked
in the garden of your thoughts:
where then has the wind driven it,
this lovely soul of the lilies?
L’âme évaporée et souffrante,
L’âme douce, l’âme odorante
Des lis divins que j’ai cueillis
Dans le jardin de ta pensée,
Où donc les vent l’ont-ils chassée
Cette âme adorable des lis?
16
Does no perfume remain
of the heavenly sweetness
of the days when you enveloped me
in a transcendent mist
of hope, faithful love,
blessing and peace?
N’est-il plus un parfum qui reste
De la suavité céleste
Des jours où tu m’enveloppais
D’une vapeur surnaturelle
Faite d’espoir, d’amour fidèle,
De béatitude et de paix?
Paul Bourget
0 Elégie
O doux printemps d’autrefois,
Vertes saisons, vous avez fui pour toujours!
Je ne vois plus le ciel bleu,
Je n’entends plus les chants joyeux des oiseaux!...
En emportant mon bonheur,
O bien-aimé, tu t’en es allé!
Et c’est en vain que revient le printemps!
Oui! sans retour, avec toi, le gai soleil,
Les jours riants sont partis!
Comme en mon cœur tout est sombre et glacé!
Tout est flétri! Pour toujours!
Louis Gallet
! Aimons-nous
Elegy
O sweet springtides of former times,
seasons of green, you have fled forever!
No more do I see the blue sky,
No more do I hear the joyous singing of the birds!
You carried my happiness away with you
when you left, O my beloved!
And the spring returns in vain.
Yes! Never to return, the bright sunshine,
the laughing days are gone away with you!
How dark and icy it is in my heart!
Everything is withered! Forever!
Aimons-nous et dormons
Sans songer au reste du monde!
Ni le flot de la mer, ni l’ouragan des monts
Tant que nous nous aimons
Ne courbera ta tête blonde,
Car l’Amour est plus fort
Que les Dieux et la Mort!
Let Us Love One Another
Let us love one another and sleep
with no thought for the rest of the world!
As long as we love each other, neither the sea’s flood
nor the mountain’s tempest
will bow your blond head,
for Love is stronger
than the Gods and Death!
Le soleil s’éteindrait
Pour laisser ta blancheur plus pure.
Le vent qui jusqu’à terre incline la forêt,
En passant n’oserait
Jouer avec ta chevelure,
Tant que tu cacheras
Ta tête entre mes bras!
The sun will extinguish its rays
to leave your pale beauty the purer.
The wind, which bends the forest to the ground,
will not dare
to play with your hair as it passes,
while you hide
your head in my arms!
17
And when our two hearts
depart for the happy spheres
where heavenly lilies will open beneath our tears,
then, like the flowers,
let us join our loving lips
and try to outlast
Death in a kiss!
Et lorsque nos deux cœurs
S’en iront aux sphères heureuses
Où les célestes lys écloront sous nos pleurs,
Alors, comme des fleurs
Joignons nos lèvres amoureuses,
Et tâchons d’épuiser
La Mort dans un baiser!
Théodore de Banville
@ Si tu le veux
If You’d Like To
If you’d like to, O my love,
this evening as soon as the day’s end
is come,
when the stars spring up
and set their nails of gold in the
blue floor of the heavens,
we will go, the two of us alone,
as lovers in the rich, dark night,
without anyone seeing us,
and tenderly I will tell you
a love song which I will fill
with all my joy.
Si tu le veux, ô mon amour,
Ce soir dès que la fin du jour
Sera venue,
Quand les étoiles surgiront,
Et mettront des clous d’or au fond
Bleu de la nue
Nous partirons seuls tous les deux
Dans la nuit brune en amoureux,
Sans qu’on nous voie
Et tendrement je te dirai
Un chant d’amour où je mettrai
Toute ma joie.
But when you return home,
if anyone asks you why,
elfin sweetheart,
your hair is wilder than before,
you will just answer that the wind
mussed it.
If you’d like to, O my love.
Mais quand tu rentreras chez toi,
Si l’on te demande pourquoi,
Mignonne fée,
Tes cheveux sont plus fous qu’avant
Tu répondras que seul le vent
T’a décoiffée.
Si tu le veux, ô mon amour.
Maurice de Marsan
£ Absence
Absence
Come back, come back, my beloved;
like a flower far from the sun,
the flower of my life is closed up
far from the bright red of your smile.
Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée;
Comme une fleur loin du soleil,
La fleur de ma vie est fermée
Loin de ton sourire vermeil.
18
Entre nos cœurs tant de distance!
Tant d’espace entre nos baisers!
O sort amer! ô dure absence!
O grands désirs inapaisés!
Our hearts so far away from each other!
Our kisses so far apart!
O bitter fate! O harsh absence!
O powerful desires unfulfilled!
Au pays qui me prend ma belle,
Hélas! si je pouvais aller;
Et si mon corps avait une aile
Comme mon âme pour voler!
If only I could travel to the land
which takes my beauty from me, alas!
If only my body had wings
to fly, like my soul!
Par dessus nos vertes collines,
Les montagnes au front d’azur,
Les champs rayés et les ravines,
J’irais d’un vol rapide et sûr.
Over our green hills,
the mountains with their azure brow,
over the ploughed fields and the ravines
I would fly, swift and sure.
Le corps ne suit pas la pensée!
Pour moi, mon âme, va tout droit,
Comme une colombe blessée
T’abattre au rebord de son toit.
My body cannot follow my thoughts!
For me, O my soul, go straight on,
like a wounded dove
cast yourself onto the edge of her roof.
Et dis, mon âme, à cette belle:
«Tu sais bien qu’il compte les jours,
O ma colombe! à tire d’aile,
Retourne au nid de nos amours!»
And say, my soul, to this fair creature:
‘You know well that he is counting the days,
O my dove! Fly like the wind
back to the nest of our love!’
Théophile Gautier
$ Après un rêve
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image
Je rêvais le bonheur, ardent mirage.
Tes yeux étaient plus doux, ta voix pure et sonore.
Tu rayonnais comme un ciel éclairé par l’aurore;
Tu m’appelais et je quittais la terre
Pour m’enfuir avec toi vers la lumière.
Les cieux pour nous entr’ouvraient leurs nues
splendeurs inconnues,
lueurs divines entrevues,
19
After a Dream
In a slumber charmed by visions of you
I dreamt of happiness, a mirage of passion.
Your eyes were more gentle, your voice pure
and resonant.
You shone like the heavens lit up by the dawn;
You called me and I left the earth
to fly away with you towards the light.
The heavens for us opened a little to reveal
their unknown, naked splendours,
glimpses of divine light...
Alas! A sad awakening from my dreams.
I call to you, O night, give me back your lies!
Come back, come back, radiant one!
Come back, O night of mystery!
Hélas! hélas! triste réveil des songes,
Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges,
Reviens, reviens radieuse,
Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!
Roman Bussine
% Soupir
Ne jamais la voir ni l’entendre,
Ne jamais tout haut la nommer,
Mais, fidèle, toujours l’attendre,
Toujours l’aimer.
Sigh
Never to see her or hear her,
never to say her name aloud,
but always to wait faithfully for her,
always to love her.
Ouvrir les bras, et las d’attendre,
Sur le néant les refermer,
Mais encor, toujours les lui tendre,
Toujours l’aimer.
To open my arms, and, weary of waiting,
to close them again on nothingness,
but again, always to hold them out to her,
always to love her.
Ah! ne pouvoir que les lui tendre,
Et dans les pleurs se consumer,
Mais ces pleurs toujours les répandre,
Toujours l’aimer...
Ah! to be able to do no more than hold them out to her,
and to be consumed in tears,
but to go on shedding these tears for ever,
always to love her...
Ne jamais la voir ni l’entendre,
Ne jamais tout haut la nommer,
Mais d’un amour toujours plus tendre
Toujours l’aimer.
Sully Prudhomme
Never to see her or hear her,
never to say her name aloud,
but with an ever more tender love
always to love her.
^ Infidélité
Voici l’orme qui balance
Son ombre sur le sentier;
Voici le jeune églantier,
Le bois où dort le silence,
Le banc de pierre où, le soir,
Nous aimions à nous asseoir.
Infidelity
Here is the elm tree, casting
its shadow on the path;
here is the young eglantine,
the grove where silence sleeps,
the stone bench where we liked
to sit in the evenings.
Voici la voûte embaumée
D’ébéniers et de lilas
Here is the perfumed canopy
of ebony and lilac
20
Où, lorsque nous étions las,
Ensemble, ma bien-aimée,
Sous des guirlandes de fleurs,
Nous laissions fuir les chaleurs.
where, when we were weary,
together, my beloved,
beneath garlands of flowers,
we let the heat of the day slip away.
L’air est pur, le gazon doux,
Rien n’a donc changé... que vous!
The air is pure, the lawn soft,
so nothing has changed... except you!
Théophile Gautier
& Chanson écossaise
Vallons, côteaux du fleuve ami,
Vous êtes frais et si fleuris!
Ton chant est gai, petit oiseau,
Mais moi j’en souffre et sens mon deuil!
Sautèle, oiseau, parmi ces fleurs,
Ton cri fait mal, il dit l’hier,
L’hier flambant, l’hier éteint,
L’amour vainqueur, l’amour d’antan.
Scottish Song
Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chaunt, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu’ o’ care?
Ye’ll break my heart, ye warbling birds,
That wanton through the flow’ry thorn,
Ye mind me o’ departed joys,
Departed never to return.
J’errais au bord du fleuve ami,
Rivant mes yeux aux lacs des fleurs;
L’oiseau joyeux chantait l’amour,
L’amour chantait au fond de moi.
Le cœur léger j’étends la main,
J’atteins la rose en ses piquants.
L’amant perfide a pris la fleur.
L’épine, hélas, reste en mon cœur.
Oft hae I roved by bonnie Doon
To see the rose and woodbine twine,
And ilka bird sang o’ its love
And fondly sae did I o’ mine.
Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose
Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree;
But my fause lover stole my rose,
And ah! he left the thorn wi’ mi.
Robert Burns
* L’Amour de moi
L’amour de moi s’y est enclose
Dedans un joli jardinet
Où croît la rose et le muguet
Et aussi fait la passerose.
My Love
My love has hidden herself away
in a pretty little garden
where the rose and the lily-of-the-valley grow,
and also the hollyhock.
Ce jardin est bel et plaisant,
Il est garni de toutes flours.
This garden is fair and pleasant,
adorned with flowers of every kind.
21
On y prend son ébattement
Autant la nuit comme le jour.
There we take our pleasure,
both night and day.
Hélas! il n’est si douce chose
Que de ce doux rossignolet
Qui chante au soir, au matinet.
Quand il est là, il se repose.
Alas! There is nothing as lovely
as the sweet nightingale
which sings morning and evening.
In the garden, he takes his rest.
Je la vis l’autre jour cueillir
La violette en un vert pré,
La plus belle qu’oncque je vis
Et la plus plaisante à mon gré.
I saw her the other day picking
violets in a green meadow,
the most beautiful girl that ever I saw
and the most pleasing to me.
Je l’ai regardée une pose,
Elle était blanche comme lait
Et douce comme un agnelet,
Vermeille et fraîche comme rose.
I watched her for a time,
she was white as milk
and sweet as a little lamb,
her mouth fresh crimson like a rose.
Anonymous
( Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui cette nuit avait déclose
Sa robe de pourpre au soleil
A point perdu cette vesprée
Le lys de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vôtre pareil.
Sweetheart, Let Us Go and See if the Rose
Sweetheart, let us go and see if the rose,
which only revealed her robe of purple
as the sun rose this morning,
has not this evening lost
the bloom of her crimson robe
and her complexion, so like your own.
Las! voyez comme en peu d’espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place,
Las! las! ses beautés laissé choir!
O vrayment, marastre nature,
Puisqu’une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir!
Alas! See how in a short space of time,
sweetheart, she has let her beauties
fall to the ground! Alas, alas!
O truly, Mother Nature is an evil stepmother,
when such a flower lasts only
from morning till evening!
Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que vostre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
So, if you will heed me, sweetheart,
while your years blossom
in all their green freshness,
22
gather, gather up your youth:
as it did to this flower, old age
will tarnish your beauty.
Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse:
Comme à ceste fleur, le vieillesse
Fera ternir vostre beauté.
Pierre de Ronsard
) Laissez-moi planter le mai
Hier matin je m’y levai,
Laissez-moi planter le mai!
Vers le bois je m’en allai,
En riant, tout en riant.
Laissez-moi planter le mai,
Moi qui suis gentil galant.
Let Me Come A-Courting
Yesterday morning I arose,
Let me come a-courting!
I headed for the woods,
Laughing all the while.
Let me come a-courting,
Courtly lover that I am.
Ma bergère j’y trouvai,
Laissez-moi planter le mai!
Bergère il nous faut aimer,
En riant, tout en riant.
Laissez-moi planter le mai,
Moi qui suis gentil galant.
I found my shepherdess there,
Let me come a-courting!
Shepherdess, we must be lovers,
Laughing all the while.
Let me come a-courting,
Courtly lover that I am.
Oh! partez, mon doux berger,
Laissez-moi planter le mai,
Car ma mère est dans ces prés,
En riant, tout en riant.
Laissez-moi planter le mai
Moi qui suis gentil galant.
Oh! Leave me, my gentle shepherd,
Let me come a-courting,
For my mother is in the fields nearby,
Laughing all the while.
Let me come a-courting,
Courtly lover that I am.
Anonymous
¡ Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis
Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis,
(Mon ami z-il est à la guerre)
Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis
Ont passé par ici.
Three Lovely Birds of Paradise
Three lovely birds of Paradise,
(My love, he’s gone to the war.)
three lovely birds of Paradise
passed by here.
Le premier était plus bleu que ciel,
(Mon ami z-il est à la guerre)
Le second était couleur de neige,
Le troisième rouge vermeil.
The first was bluer than the sky,
(My love, he’s gone to the war.)
the second was the colour of snow,
the third vermillion-red.
23
«Beaux oiselets du Paradis,
(Mon ami z-il est à la guerre)
Beaux oiselets du Paradis,
Qu’apportez par ici?»
‘Lovely little birds of Paradise,
(My love, he’s gone to the war)
lovely little birds of Paradise,
what do you bring me here?’
C’est Tircis et c’est Aminte,
Et c’est l’éternel Clitandre,
Et c’est Damis qui pour mainte
Cruelle fait maint vers tendre.
It’s Thyrsis and it’s Amyntas
and it’s the same old Clitander,
and it’s Damis, who wrote many
a tender poem for many a cruel lady.
«J’apporte un regard couleur d’azur.
(Ton ami z-il est à la guerre.)»
«Et moi, sur beau front couleur de neige,
Un baiser dois mettre, encor plus pur.»
‘I bring a gaze as blue as azure.
(Your love, he’s gone to the war.)’
‘And I, on a fair forehead white as snow,
must place a kiss, even more pure.’
Leurs courtes vestes de soie,
Leurs longues robes à queues,
Leur élégance, leur joie
Et leurs molles ombres bleues,
Their short silk coats,
their long, trailing dresses,
their elegance, their joy
and their soft blue shadows
«Oiseau vermeil du Paradis,
(Mon ami z-il est à la guerre)
Oiseau vermeil du Paradis,
Que portez-vous ainsi?»
‘Red bird of Paradise,
(My love, he’s gone to the war.)
red bird of Paradise,
what is it you bring?’
Tourbillonnent dans l’extase
D’une lune rose et grise,
Et la mandoline jase
Parmi les frissons de brise.
swirl round and round in the ecstasy
of a pink and grey moon,
and the mandolin chatters
amid the quivering breezes.
«Un joli cœur tout cramoisi.
(Ton ami z-il est à la guerre.)»
«Ah! je sens mon cœur qui froidit...
Emportez-le aussi.»
Maurice Ravel
‘A pretty heart, all crimson.
(Your love, he’s gone to the war.)’
‘Ah! I feel my heart growing cold...
Take it away as well.’
™ Extase
Ecstasy
On a pale lily my heart is sleeping
in a slumber soft as death...
Exquisite death, death fragrant
with the breath of my beloved...
On your pale breast my heart is sleeping
in a slumber soft as death...
Sur un lys pâle mon cœur dort
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort...
Mort exquise, mort parfumée
Du souffle de la bien-aimée...
Sur ton sein pâle mon cœur dort
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort...
Jean Lahor
# Mandoline
Mandolin
The young men singing serenades
and the lovely ladies listening to them
exchange trite remarks
beneath the singing branches.
Les donneurs de sérénades
Et les belles écouteuses
Echangent des propos fades
Sous les ramures chanteuses.
Paul Verlaine
¢ C
C
I crossed the bridges of Cé
That’s where it all started
A song of times past
spoke of a wounded knight
a rose lying on the road
and an unlaced bodice
of the castle of a deranged duke
and of swans in the moats;
of the meadow where
an eternal fiancée comes to dance
and I drank, like iced milk,
the long lay of the distorted glories.
The Loire carries my thoughts away
with the overturned cars
and the unprimed weapons
and the tears half wiped away
O my France, O my forsaken one
I crossed the bridges of Cé.
J’ai traversé les ponts de Cé
C’est là que tout a commencé
Une chanson des temps passés
Parle d’un chevalier blessé
D’une rose sur la chaussée
Et d’un corsage délacé
Du chateau d’un duc insensé
Et des cygnes dans les fossés
De la prairie où vient danser
Une éternelle fiancée
Et j’ai bu comme un lait glacé
Le long lai des gloires faussées.
La Loire emporte mes pensées
Avec les voitures versées
Et les armes désamorcées
Et les larmes mal effacées
O ma France, ô ma délaissée
J’ai traversé les ponts de Cé.
Louis Aragon
24
25
∞ Fêtes galantes
Courtly Entertainment
You see marquesses on bicycles
You see pimps dressed as hobbyhorses
You see snotty-nosed kids with veils
You see firemen burning their pompoms
You see words thrown on the rubbish heap
You see words carried shoulder-high
You see the feet of the Children of Mary
You see the back of cabaret actresses
You see gas-powered cars
You see hand-carts too
You see rogues bothered by their long noses
You see eighteen-carat idiots
You see here what you see anywhere
You see girls gone astray
You see louts, you see voyeurs
You see drowned bodies passing under the bridges
You see shoe-sellers standing around idle
You see egg-candlers dying of boredom
You see reliable values heading for disaster
and life running away on the six-four-two.
On voit des marquis sur des bicyclettes
On voit des marlous en cheval jupon
On voit des morveux avec des voilettes
On voit des pompiers brûler les pompons
On voit des mots jetés à la voirie
On voit des mots élevés au pavois
On voit les pieds des enfants de Marie
On voit le dos des diseuses à voix
On voit des voitur’ à gazogène
On voit aussi des voitur’ à bras
On voit des lascars que les longs nez gênent
On voit des coïons de dix-huit carats
On voit ici ce que l’on voit ailleurs
On voit des demoiselles dévoyées
On voit des voyous, on voit des voyeurs
On voit sous les ponts passer les noyés
On voit chômer les marchands de chaussures
On voit mourir d’ennui les mireurs d’œufs
On voit péricliter les valeurs sûres
Et fuir la vie à la six quat’ deux.
Louis Aragon
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David Hobson
concert appearances across Australia and
New Zealand.
Tenor and composer David Hobson is one of
Australia’s best-known operatic performers. He
has sung many roles with Opera Australia
including his award-winning performances as
Rodolfo in the acclaimed Baz Luhrmann
production of La bohème and Orphée in Orphée
et Eurydice. More recently his roles for the
company have included Nadir (The Pearl Fishers),
Dorvil (La scala di seta) and Florville (Il signor
Bruschino) as well as Ralph Rackstraw (HMS
Pinafore) and The Defendant (Trial by Jury), both
televised nationally by the ABC, and Frederic
(The Pirates of Penzance). Internationally he has
appeared with San Francisco Opera in the world
premiere of Dangerous Liaisons.
David Hobson’s discography includes Opera
Australia’s productions of The Gondoliers, Don
Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Orphée et Euridice, La
bohème (also available on CD); French and Italian
Arias, Handel Arias, Cinema Paradiso and David
Hobson Live for ABC Classics; Something for
Everybody on EMI, the soundtracks of One
Perfect Day, Elizabeth and Better than Sex;
Inside This Room, a collection of original
compositions with David Hirschfelder; Evelyn
Glennie – Shadow behind the Iron Sun; and
Tenor and Baritone with Anthony Warlow.
David MCSkimming
His compositions include a music theatre
version of Macbeth, the chamber opera
Remembering Rosie, and the soundtrack to the
film One Perfect Day, which was named Best
Score by the Australian Film Critics Association.
His performances have been distinguished by
numerous awards including Operatic Performer
of the Year in the MO Awards, Sydney Critics’
Circle Awards for Rodolfo and Orphée, The Age
Performing Arts Award for Best Performer in
Opera, and an Australian Record Industry
Association (ARIA) Award. Recent engagements
have included the title role in Candide at the
Perth International Festival, a performance in
Canberra for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and
David McSkimming has been, over many years,
a regular performer in concert and on radio for
the ABC. Since graduating with a Masters
degree in Piano Performance, he has played
harpsichord and organ continuo and piano with
the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony
Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria and the Adelaide
Chamber Orchestra. He has also played french
horn in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
He has given recitals with many of Australia’s
most distinguished musicians, including singers
Yvonne Kenny, Rosamund Illing, Marilyn
Richardson, Joan Carden, Elizabeth Campbell,
Merlyn Quaife, Emma Matthews and Jonathan
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Summers, violinists Jane Peters and Miwako
Abe and horn player Richard Runnels. In October
1998 as part of the Melbourne International
Festival, David McSkimming was the associate
artist in recitals with the renowned Korean
soprano Sumi Jo and American tenor Gary
Lakes. In the same festival he was the
accompanist for the Sir Yehudi Menuhin
masterclass.
Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle Chan
Recording Producer Thomas Grubb
Recording Engineer Thomas Grubb, Jim Atkins
Mastering Thomas Grubb, Virginia Read
Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb
Publications Editor Natalie Shea
Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Photography Pierre Baroni
Language Coach Denise Shepherd
Song Text Translations Natalie Shea
David McSkimming was a member of the State
Opera of South Australia from 1976 to 1989,
after which he worked with the Victoria State
Opera as Principal Repetiteur until joining Opera
Australia in 1997. He has also worked with Opera
Factory Zurich. He has been a Visiting Artist at
the Australian National Academy of Music,
working with artists including English mezzosoprano Sarah Walker and Australian baritone
Gregory Yurisich. David McSkimming is still
based in Melbourne but now freelances,
travelling all over Australia as an accompanist
and repetiteur. During 2003-04 he spent seven
months as principal repetiteur for the State
Opera of South Australia’s Ring cycle.
Recorded 25-28 October 2005 and 3-5 January 2006
in the Iwaki Auditorium of the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation’s Southbank Centre,
Melbourne.
David Hobson was photographed at the Prince
Albert Suite of The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne.
ABC Classics thanks Angela Mudford (Hotel
Windsor), Emma Alessi and Alexandra Alewood.
2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
© 2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed
in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group,
under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the
owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record
without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
David McSkimming’s recordings include Songs
of Duparc and Poulenc with Rosamund Illing,
Chinese songs with tenor Yu Jixing, a CD of
French violin music with violinist Miwako Abe,
and, in 2005, a disc of English songs and duets
with Anthony Warlow and David Hobson.
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