Choral & Song
L Boulanger • N Boulanger
Fauré: Lydia; L Boulanger: Reflets; Clairières dans le ciel; Attente;
N Boulanger: Versailles; Heures ternes; Cantique; La mer est plus belle; Soleils couchants; Soir d’hiver Nicholas Phan (tenor), Myra Huang (piano) Avie AV2414 53:17 mins L Boulanger: Quatre Chants;
N Boulanger: Écoutez la chanson bien douce; Priere; Poème d’amour; Versailles; Le Couteau; Soir d’hiver; Élégie; La mer; Heures ternes;
N Boulanger/Pugno: Les heures claires Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Tristan Raës (piano) Aparté AP224 65:09 mins
Two sisters, two promising compositional careers cut short, two discs celebrating their talents. A harsh self-critic, Nadia Boulanger stopped composing a few years after the death, aged just 24, of her harmonically more daring younger sister Lili. With just six songs in common, these new discs complement each other in confirming that two great talents were silenced too soon.
Nicholas Phan and Myra Huang’s intelligently programmed recital gathers settings of Maeterlinck and Verlaine by the sisters as preparation for Lili’s remarkable 13-song cycle Clairières dans le ciel. Cyrille Dubois and Tristan Raës have a stronger emphasis on Nadia’s songs, with just four from Lili as the centrepiece. Moreover, there is a genuine rarity in the form , a cycle that has the unusual distinction of genuinely being jointly composed, Nadia partnered by Raoul Pugno. An attractive work, it crowns a mesmerising recital.
