We tend to associate
Slavonic voices with a vibrant, passionate
sound and lots of vibrato. Whether this
is really a national characteristic
or just a type of vocal training favoured
in those parts, there is always the
exception to the rule. Olga Pasiecznik
(who in any case is actually from the
Ukraine though she studied in Poland
and is now settled there) seems not
to have an especially large voice, and
one that is capable at times of an almost
virginal purity of emission but is more
often warmed and tempered by a fine,
well-controlled vibrato which, far from
being excessive, attracts and assuages
the ear with a violin-like quality.
There are occasional hints (not too
many) that this is International rather
than French French and we don’t have
that forward, almost conversational
placing of the words which was a feature
of the Maggie Teyte manner in this repertoire.
Perhaps this was not Pasiecznik’s intention
since, while far from negligent of the
words, she seems to wish to present
each song as a vocal and musical poem,
offering a continuous stream of beautiful
sound which frankly held me spellbound.
In just a few of the Poulenc (not all
of them) I might have preferred a little
more bite but the Debussy (a far from
hackneyed selection) are lovely. I don’t
remember ever enjoying the Duparc so
much – glorious music but it doesn’t
always come across as such.
The
success of this recital is no less due
to the pianist (by the way, the Polish
crossed “Ł” is pronounced like
the English “W” so an approximate phonetic
spelling of her name would be “Pobwotska”).
Ewa Pobłocka has an active solo
career to her credit and her
recordings include the Bach Partitas,
the Chopin Mazurkas and the Fauré
Nocturnes. On the strength of her playing
here I should be most interested to
hear these latter. She has all the technique
to encompass the many notes of this
music (the Duparc in less sensitive
hands, can sound heavily over-written)
and not only that, she can absorb them
into a luminous and free-flowing texture.
She makes not a single sound here which
is not rounded, considered and translucently
beautiful. Since she also knows how
to breathe with the singer it would
be difficult to imagine a better duo
partnership for this music, in whose
hands it wafts in and out of the consciousness
as a perfect musical equivalent of Marcel
Proust.
This duo must give
us more: some Fauré and Chausson
as a follow-up to the present collection
for a start, and they would surely be
ideal interpreters of Szymanowski. And
what about the highly attractive songs
of Moniuszko, scarcely known outside
Poland? It also struck me, as I listened
to the gentle, and sometimes passionate,
nostalgia of Duparc, that they could
be revelatory in John Ireland and I
wonder if they have ever considered
looking at this repertoire?
The recordings are
excellent and the booklet includes full
French texts with brief synopses in
English and Polish (omitting "Nuit
d’Etoiles" by some oversight) plus
an essay which offers quite a good analysis
of what makes the French song French.
In its actual presentation this booklet
has a rather modern air, which means
odd colours on odd-coloured backgrounds
and the text of "Elégie"
(a French version of Thomas Moore’s
"Oh! breathe not his name")
all but disappears under its background
photograph, which seems to be taking
Proustian evanescence a little too far.
The name of the poet of Poulenc’s gorgeous
"Les chemins d’amour" is omitted
(or did they print it in pale pink on
a pale pink background?); it is by Jean
Anouilh.
Christopher Howell
The
CD ACCORD Catalogue
Olga Pasiecznik (soprano), Ewa Pobłocka
(piano) 
for
details