Konrad Jarnot, Helmut Deutsch - Ravel: Shéhérazade / Duparc: Les Mélodies (2005)

Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade, in a version for baritone voice and piano, necessarily takes pride of place on the program, as any world-premiere recording must. But the greater part of this disc is devoted to songs by Henri Duparc, and after hearing this CD, the listener may find Duparc's seldom-heard but utterly captivating mélodies to be the real find. Without disparaging Ravel's exquisite setting of poems by Tristan Klingsor, or the dramatic performance by Konrad Jarnot and pianist Helmut Deutsch, Shéhérazade is the more familiar work, and many will have heard it before, though sung most often by a soprano. Performances of Duparc's mélodies, though, are less common, and any opportunity to hear his music performed well should be taken. His imaginatively constructed settings of poems by Baudelaire, Lahor, Gautier, and other French poets capture the emotional pangs of the late nineteenth century more penetratingly and honestly than many other attempts of the time, and with an exemplary economy of means. It's difficult to say where the sentiments of the performers lie -- Shéhérazade is a better showpiece for both singer and accompanist -- but Jarnot and Deutsch invest these mélodies with special affection and tenderness, and the fine recording does justice to these sensitive musicians, the music, and Duparc.