Marie-Laure Garnier’s enticing Oxford journey through some late Romantic French repertoire

United Kingdom Oxford Lieder Festival 2022 [3] – Fauré, Chausson, Charlotte Sohy: Marie-Laure Garnier (soprano), Angharad Rowlands (mezzo-soprano), Hanson Quartet, Célia Oneto Bensaid, Joseph Cavalli-Price (pianists). Holywell Music Room, Oxford, 19.10.2022. (CR)

Debussy – En sourdine; Fantouches; Clair de lune
Richard Strauss – Das Rosenband, Op.36 No.1
Grieg – Gruss; Zur Rosenzeit; Ein Traum
Fauré – La bonne Chanson, Op.61
Chausson – Chanson perpétuelle, Op.37
Charlotte Sohy – Trois Chants Nostalgiques
Chausson – Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Op.19

In this recital Marie-Laure Garnier took the audience on an enticing journey through some late Romantic French repertoire in the company of Célia Oneto Bensaid and the Hanson Quartet. It was unfortunate that, on the small stage of the Holywell Music Room, Garnier was rather hemmed in between the end of the piano’s front side, and the string quartet in front so that, not only was she physically submerged, but sonic balance among all the performers was also often not even.

Despite that, in the nine songs of Fauré’s cycle La bonne Chanson, Garnier achieved an eloquent, lyrical reserve, sometimes overcome by the strings (but, oddly, not by the piano which also seemed recessed) although in the case of ‘Puise l’aube grandit’ it was their soft cushion of sound that was somewhat throttled by more strongly projected singing and fearsomely rippling piano.  Paradoxically, perhaps, a fine equilibrium was attained in the more passionate outpouring (and a rare contrast in texture in this rather monochrome cycle) towards the end of ‘Avant que tu ne t’en ailles’, where the instrumental harmonies moved more happily and squarely alongside the voice.

The role of the piano quintet in Charlotte Sohy’s rarely heard, but rewarding, Trois Chants Nostalgiques is more intrinsic to these settings and musically richer than in the Fauré. In fact, they almost sound like movements for piano quintet with accompanying soprano, though that may partly have been the issue of balance again, seeming to render Garnier’s contribution as provisional, despite the terser vocal lines and her grittier articulation as a result. Certainly, the strings were prompted to darker, heavier colours in this music that had something of the more angular, demonstrative harmonic qualities of Lili Boulanger or Frank Martin for example than forbears such as Debussy or Fauré.

The two items by Chausson (both originally written with full orchestral accompaniment) are almost in the nature of self-contained operatic scenes. But even in these smaller scale chamber versions (that of the Chanson presumably by Chausson, the one of the Poème uncredited), Garnier was at her best in sustaining long vocal lines which were dramatically charged and soared across the longer spans of these scores. Her tone was equally focused and commanding both in tense, feverish passages, as well as quiet, reflective ones, not least in the concluding section with her absolutely rapt, vibrato-less diction. The strings also secured a convincing sense of the music’s ebb and flow with tension building and then discharged with the easefulness of breathing.

In the opening section of the recital by this evening’s selected pair of emerging artists, Angharad Rowlands and Joseph Cavalli-Price set the scene for the French repertoire to come with animated performances of three Debussy songs. That urgency, and her bright, wiry vocal production carried over into the pieces by Richard Strauss and Grieg, where the German words seemed to suit better the solid projection of her singing. Cavalli-Price gave lively accounts of the accompaniments, telling the story and depicting graphic details with keen attention.

Curtis Rogers