CHABRIER Mélodies • Erick Freulon (bar); Laurent Martin (pn) • LIGIA DIGITAL 0201021-94 (59:00 Text and Translation)

L’îsle heureuse. Credo d’amour. L’enfant. Ballade des gros dindons. Pastorale des cochons roses. Villanelle des petits canards. Le Pas d’armes du Roi Jean, Chanson pour Jeanne. Le sentier sombre. Couplets de Mariette. España. Sérénade. Lied. Romance de l’Étoile

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–94) is a name that is always there, though one is seldom quite sure where “there” is, apart from in España . We probably associate him most with chamber music, especially for winds, and overlook the fact that he was a great orchestrator (for Debussy, among others), and that his output included operas, a considerable amount of orchestral music, as well as string quartets and trios, and a relatively small number of songs. If his compositional dexterity and lightness of touch often let us see him as someone who need not be taken seriously, that is our loss, for these songs are as much a part of the French mélodie tradition as those of Debussy, Hahn, Poulenc, and Ravel, without sounding like theirs.

While one can say that the songs here often have lighter texts, that in no way suggests that they are sentimental salon pieces, something Chabrier intensely disliked and refused to write when once asked. Listen to the Pastorale des cochons roses for a text that is on one level amusing, but on another quite satirical. Then, too, the setting of Victor Hugo’s Le Pas d’armes du Roi Jean contrasts the heroic self-image of the king with the almost unremarked death in battle of his page. Some might be especially interested to learn that Chabrier made his own song/piano version of his most famous orchestral piece, España , and it is exhuberently performed here.

Freulon has a light clear, baritone, balanced in all registers, and is a real pleasure to listen to. Alas, the notes for this 1994 recording were apparently not updated for this release and one does not learn that he is still active on the opera stage. Nor will they tell you that Laurent Martin has a career as a chamber musician, and recordings of Onslow, Alkan, Gounod, Mompou, Liszt, and others to his credit.

This recording celebrated the centenary of Chabrier’s death but seems never to have been released in North America. Its chief competition, which I have not heard, is a two-CD set with a splash of singers under the practiced hand of Graham Johnson (Hyperion), reviewed favorably by Adrian Corleonis in Fanfare 26:3. This one, however, will do very well, thank you, as an introduction to a side of Chabrier not much known, and to a singer not much known, both well worth getting to know. Alan Swanson