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The 150th anniversary of Bizet’s death this year has not received much attention. Only aged 36, Bizet had struggled to win the recognition he deserved and died unaware that his opera Carmen would become one of the most popular of all time.
Unlike some other French composers, such as Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc, Bizet has never had a complete recording of his songs — until now.
This first-ever, three-disc set of his melodies has been prepared with due care. Around a third of the songs have not been recorded before and some not previously published. They are presented in their discreet collections or groups, each accompanied by a piano of the appropriate period.
There is barely a song in which Bizet’s gift for melody does not shine out. The Vingt mélodies Op 21, which include the well-known “Chanson d’Avril” and “Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe”, fill the first disc and are the most consistently fine, but there are discoveries elsewhere. A setting of Victor Hugo’s “Oh! Quand je dors” has a yearning romanticism. “Aubade” and “Aimons! Rêvons!” from the 1885 set are lyric beauties.
Cyrille Dubois, a French song specialist, is the obvious lure among the singers, but mezzo-soprano Coline Dutilleul is also excellent, not least in her songs from the Pyrenees. Soprano Marianne Croux can sound a touch shrill and bass-baritone Guilhem Worms unattractively cavernous, but the two pianists — Luca Montebugnoli and Edoardo Torbianelli — offer accompaniments on their period pianos that are a welcome bonus to a valuable set of recordings.
★★★★☆
‘Bizet: Les Mélodies’ is released by Harmonia Mundi
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