Gramophone Awards
2024
Shortlisted - Voice & Ensemble

Gramophone Magazine
April 2024
Editor's Choice

Véronique Gens (soprano), Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Hervé Niquet

Dubois, T: Chansons de Marjolie: No. 3, Celui que j’aime
Hahn, R: Paysage
Dubois, T: Petits rêves d’enfant: No. 1, Andantino
Fauré: Clair de Lune, Op. 46 No. 2
Dubois, T: Chansons de Marjolie: No. 7, En paradis
Saint-Saëns: La splendeur vide (No. 2 from Mélodies persanes, Op. 26)
Massenet: Les Erinnyes: Invocation
Chausson: Les morts, Op 17 No 1
Hervé Niquet
Tombelle: Rêverie
Hahn, R: Mai
Gounod: La Fauvette
Massenet: Esclarmonde: Pastorale
Dubois, T: Musiques sur l’eau: No. 6, Blancheurs d’ailes
Gounod: Clos ta paupière
Fauré: Les roses d'Ispahan Op. 39 No. 4
Dubois, T: Petits reves d'enfants
Dubois, T: Ce qui dure
Massenet: Sapho: Solitude
Hahn, R: D’une prison
Fauré: Shylock Op. 57: Nocturne
Fauré: Mélodies (2), Op. 4: No. 1, La Chanson du pêcheur
Saint-Saëns: Aimons-nous

In this recital, Véronique Gens and Hervé Niquet bring back to life a neglected aspect of France’s Romantic heritage: songs with orchestral accompaniment. Aside from a few pieces by Debussy and Duparc, and Berlioz’s famous Nuits d’été , orchestral mélodies form a virtually forgotten continent. In collaboration with the specialists of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, Alpha now revisits these musical landscapes, taking us from Brittany (Hahn) to Persia, whose beauties Fauré and Saint-Saëns exalt in very different ways. Mélodies by Chausson, Gounod and Dubois and rarely heard instrumental pieces by Massenet, Fauré and Fernand de La Tombelle round out the journey with their musical reveries.

"Her soprano is in remarkably good shape, supple and elegant, her diction exemplary and her phrasing exquisite, deftly capturing the mood of each song." - Gramophone Magazine, April 2024