L’heure exquise: A French Songbook – Alice Coote, Graham Johnson (2015) [Hyperion Records FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

L’heure exquise: A French Songbook – Alice Coote, Graham Johnson (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:28 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: hyperion-records | @ Hyperion Records
Recorded: October 2012, All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom

Alice Coote is the darling of the world’s opera stages and recital halls—to the extent that her solo recordings are rare events. In this much-anticipated French Songbook, Graham Johnson lends his incomparable insight to this most remarkable of talents on an emotional rollercoaster through twenty-three songs of Gallic love in all its guises.

Sexiness is a rare quality. Listen to most non-French singers sing mélodies and you can hear a faint simper or coyness as they tackle sad-sweet standards such as Poulenc’s Les chemins de l’amour and Satie’s Je te veux.There is nothing bashful about Alice Coote’s singing. In a selection of songs from the Gothic opiate of Berlioz’s Le spectre de la rose to the Second Empire effusions of Gounod, Chabrier and Saint-Saëns, the hot house blooms of Hahn, Chausson and Bachelet, and the tender ironies of Fauré, Debussy, Poulenc and Charles Koechlin, Coote demonstrates the sexiest quality any singer can possess: complete attention to the text.
It helps to have a beautiful voice, to be able to spin a high note (in Hahn’s L’heure exquise) and seamlessly dip into chest voice (in Fauré’s Fleur jetée), to know when to cool it (in Debussy’s La grotte) and when to turn on the heat (in the Satie). But the major achievement here is Coote’s minute responsiveness to the poetry, the colour of vowel and consonant, and the precise function of each word, as demonstrated in the Brel-like conversational rhythms of Koechlin’s Novembre. Though the textures are sometimes blurred in the fingers of veteran pianist Graham Johnson, he identifies the difference between moonlight, candlelight and sunlight. As a sequence, it is brilliantly programmed. -Anna Picard, BBC Music Magazine

Tracklist:
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
1 Les chemins de l’amour FP106 Les chemins qui vont à la mer[3’48]Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
2 L’heure exquise La lune blanche (No 5 of Chansons grises)[2’26]
3 Les étoiles Les cieux resplendissants d’étoiles (No 9 of Douze Rondels)[2’50]Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
4 Le secret Op 23 No 3 Je veux que le matin l’ignore[2’33]Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
5 Sérénade Quand tu chantes, bercée[4’26]
6 Au printemps Le printemps chasse les hivers[1’57]Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
7 Toutes les fleurs[4’45]Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
8 Le temps des lilas[4’11]Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
9 Fleur jetée Op 39 No 2 Emporte ma folie[1’39]Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
10 Le spectre de la rose Soulève ta paupière close (No 2 of Les nuits d’été, Op 7)[6’11]Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
11 Aimons-nous[4’11]Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
12 L’île heureuse Dans le golfe aux jardins ombreux[2’50]Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944)
13 Chère nuit Voici l’heure bientôt[4’56]Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
14 Soirée en mer Près du pêcheur qui ruisselle[4’34]Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
15 La grotte Auprès de cette grotte sombre (No 2 of Trois chansons de France, L115)[2’25]Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
16 Fumée Compagne de l’éther, indolente fumée (No 8 of Les feuilles blessées)[2’41]Erik Satie (1866-1925)
17 Je te veux J’ai compris ta détresse[3’54]Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
18 La chère blessure Comme d’un sein ouvert la main arrache une arme[3’20]Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)
19 Novembre (No 2 of Quatre mélodies, Op 22)[3’17]Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
20 Voyage à Paris Ah! la charmante chose (No 4 of Banalités, FP107)[0’58]
21 Hôtel Ma chambre a la forme d’une cage (No 2 of Banalités, FP107)[1’45]
22 La Grenouillère FP96 Au bord de l’île on voit[1’50]
23 Voyage Adieu amour nuage qui fuit et n’a pas chu pluie (No 7 of Calligrammes, FP140)[3’01]