Performers

André Morsch (baritone)

Charlene Farrugia (piano)

Programme

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)  

“Air pour la Jeunesse” from Le triomphe de l’amour (Piano solo)

"Belle Hermione" from Cadmus et Hermione

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764)

Rivaux de mes exploits from Les indes Galantes                      

La villageoise from “Suite in e minor” (Piano solo)

Nature, amour from Castor et Pollux

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)                                                                                                         

La demoiselle élue; L.62 Prélude (Piano solo)

Trois ballades de François Villon

• Faulse beauté qui tant me coûte cher

• Dame du ciel, régente terrienne

• Quoy qu'on tient belles langagières

Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963)

Mélancholie, FP 105 (Piano solo)

Chansons gaillardes

1. "La Maîtresse volage" – Rondement

2. "Chanson à boire" – Adagio

3. "Madrigal" – Très décidé

4. "Invocation aux Parques" – Grave

5. "Couplets bachiques" – Très animé

6. "L'Offrande" – Modéré

7. 'La Belle Jeunesse" – Très animé

8. "Sérénade" – Modéré

Michel Lambert (1610 – 1696)

Vos mépris chaque jour

Ma bergère est tendre et fidèle

Programme Notes

There was an ongoing argument in early 18th-century France between those who preferred to maintain French music exclusively French and others who preferred the increasingly popular Italian style. Ironically, Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian immigrant who was born in Florence, was regarded as the model of real French music during the 17th century. Jean-Philippe Rameau is best known for his work as an opera composer and as a theorist who standardized the musical language to create what is currently regarded as standard harmony. Rameau was a talented keyboard player who also composed four volumes of some of his generation's finest harpsichord music. Michel Lambert was an exceptional vocalist and writer of both sacred and secular voice music. His melodies are idiomatically composed, and his technique prioritizes the clear declamation of the text over vocal virtuosity. After turning 40, Claude Debussy gradually disappeared into a world of the mind where he was free to make his own choices. He had never been a supporter of modernism, whether in life or music. The works of François Villon, a poet from the fifteenth century, inspired him, and in 1910, he composed the Trois ballades de François Villon. Francis Poulenc wrote the Chansons gaillardes in 1926 based on anonymous texts from the seventeenth century, whose seductiveness he transformed into nearly naive poetry.