In this brilliant, luscious recording by soprano Claire Booth and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen, we’re given songs circulating in Paris in 1913. Debussy and Ravel are both looking at the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898). The symbolist poet set the two composers in competition, and it was Ravel who first achieved the rights to set Mallarmé to music. Stravinsky was in town, with The Rite of Spring riot in everyone’s thoughts. He was friends with both composers, most especially Ravel, who had been with him through the first notes of Rite, ‘hammered out on piano’ by the composer, through its controversial premiere.
This recording includes both Ravel’s and Debussy’s Mallarmé settings of Trois poèmes, with 2 of the poems set by both composers. Ravel’s Trois poèmes include ‘Soupir’ (Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur), ‘Placet futile’ (Princesse! à jalouser le destin d’une Hébé), and ‘Surgi de la croupe et du bond’, whereas Debussy set ‘Eventail’ (Ô rêveuse, pour que je plonge) as his third song.
Ravel’s setting was originally for chamber ensemble (string quartet, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, and piano) and appears on this recording in Stravinsky’s arrangement of the work for piano. Ravel’s setting of ‘Surgi’ is more like early Schoenberg than the very tonal settings of the two other verses.
The heart of the recording, and, indeed, the work that the album takes its name from is Louis Durey’s L’Offrande lyrique, a setting of six texts by the winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, Rabindranath Tagore, as translated by André Gide. We again hear the atonal inspiration of Schoenberg, particularly as from The Book of the Hanging Garden. L’Offrande lyrique is ‘often credited as the first piece of free twelve-note technique in French music’ and we can hear how the French differed from the Viennese in their application of non-tonal techniques. This is France’s escape from the veils of impressionism and into the glancing light of twelve-tone music. Durey (1888–1979) was a member of Les Six, being one of the original members with Darius Milhaud.
Louis Durey, 1930 (colourized)
Jacques-Émile Blanche: Le Groupe des six, 1922 (In the centre: pianist Marcelle Meyer. From bottom left: Germaine Tailleferre, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Jean Wiener. On the right : Georges Auric (seated), Francis Poulenc, Jean Cocteau)
This is the world premiere recording of Durey’s work. Despite being part of Les Six, he marginalised himself, not participating in their great group work of 1921, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel, music to the annoyance of Jean Cocteau. He left Paris for the south of France and, after the war, became a hard-line communist, also to the detriment of his career.
L’Offrande lyrique, Op. 4, are songs of nature, of the end of day, of the early morning, of clouds above where the darkening sky reflects his lost love, of little flowers that send messages, and of light that spreads joy and happiness. The texts are unlike anything else of their time, reflecting their author, Rabbindranath Tagore (1861–1841) and his elegant prose.
Louis Durey: L’offrande lyrique, Op. 4 – No. 6. Lumière! Ma lumière! (Claire Booth, soprano; Andrew Matthews-Owen, piano)
Other composers on this recording include the expected, and other members of Les Six, Darius Milhaud and Georges Auric, as well as Reynaldo Hahn, Camille Saint-Saëns, André Caplet, Cécile de Chaminade, Lili Boulanger, and Erik Satie. This was also the time of cabarets and salons and the inclusion of Gabriel Grovlez’ Guitares et mandolines shows us that world.
French song in the early 20th century was unmatched in the world, either in its musicality or beauty. Luxuriating over the texts, be they surreal or humorous, filmic or descriptive, made French composers the envy of the world. In this recording, we hear a year captured in music and the performers show us the musical possibilities that WWI swept away.
Paris 1913: L’Offrande lyrique
Claire Booth, soprano; Andrew Matthews-Owen, piano
RRF Classical N1 6455
Release date: 7 February 2025
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