Berlioz: la Belle Voyageuse Jérôme Corréas / Arthur Schoonderwoerd

Berlioz: la Belle Voyageuse Jérôme Corréas / Arthur Schoonderwoerd

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
It may seem surprising that Berlioz, so well known for his imposing works and full-scale choral and orchestral compositions, also applied himself to the romance genre. And he was one of the very first composers of French mélodies, attaining the very heights of the genre with Les Nuits d’été in 1840.

Besides this famous set of songs, he wrote two lesser-known collections, evocatively entitled Irlande and Fleurs des Landes. The rural flavour of Ireland, the heaths of Brittany. The former was composed in 1829-1830, while the latter comprises five mélodies dating from the years 1848-1850.

The songs in these two collections are for one voice, occasionally two, and sometimes for a chorus. Sometimes, too, a melodic instrument (horn or cello) discreetly underlines the musical discourse, evoking with nostalgia the colours of nature (Le coucher du soleil, Le jeune pâtre breton), the land (La belle voyageuse, Petit oiseau), journeys (Hélène), or stronger - more vivid, indeed violent - colours, with hunting (Le chasseur danois), patriotism (Le chant des Bretons) and even politics (Élégie). Love, too, is present, playful in Le trébuchet, sad in Adieu Bessy and L’origine de la harpe.

Diverse, often elaborate, sometimes strange, Berlioz's mélodies are finely worked miniatures, in which we perceive his quest for a personal language and an almost obsessive desire for novelty.

Jérôme Corréas, baryton-basse
Arthur Schoonderwoerd, piano

avec la participation de

Claire Brua, mezzo-soprano
Alain Gabriel, ténor
Marie-Bénédicte Souquet, soprano
Jean-François Lombard, ténor
Jean-François Novelli, ténor
Vincent Deliau, baryton
Christophe Coin, violoncelle
Claude Maury, cor

Berlioz: la Belle Voyageuse Jérôme Corréas / Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Music, Hector Berlouz

Berlioz: la Belle Voyageuse Jérôme Corréas / Arthur Schoonderwoerd

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