The young mezzo-soprano Frances Bourne has made this imaginative
debut disc, assembling cabaret-influenced songs by Weill, Britten
and Martinů.
Britten wrote his
cabaret songs, to Auden's texts, in the 1930s. They were written
at various times and not intended as a set; indeed some are
missing. But his Four Cabaret Songs have become well
known and often recorded. Here they are performed in orchestrations
by Daryl Runswick. For me, Runswick's versions are a little
too clever for their own good; at the opening of each verse
he adds little quotations from other music involving love. Bourne's
performance of the songs is warm and responsive, though she
seems more concerned with a sense of line than emphasising the
words. She is slightly let down by her upper register which
is more dramatically wayward than is ideal in this type of song.
These are followed
by three songs from L'Opera de quat' sous, the French
version of Weill and Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Quite
why we should want to hear an English mezzo-soprano singing
French versions of German songs I don't know. The French language
is a little too liquid for these songs; Bourne simply doesn't
have the consonants to spit out.
Quite what is wrong
is demonstrated in the following songs where Weill was writing
to a French text. Complainte de la Seine and Je ne
t'aime pas were written for the diseuse Lys Gauty who had
recorded songs from L'Opera de quat' sous. Here Bourne
shows herself susceptible to Weill's lovely lines and certainly
seduces us. For three songs she is accompanied by the excellent
James Holmes on the piano. Otherwise the Matrix Ensemble provide
exemplary accompaniments, Weill's orchestrations being played
stylishly and straight.
The genuine French
songs are followed by French versions of September Song
and two items from Happy End, these are frankly curious.
Though the inclusion of Happy End does provide a link
to the songs from Marie Galante which Bourne sings at
the end of the disc, as Weill used Happy End as a source
of material for his music for Marie Galante.
Bourne and Holmes
then perform three songs by Martinů. Though Martinů
had a Parisian sojourn, these songs date from 1921 when he lived
in Prague. The songs were written for the subversive Red Seven
cabaret and the texts are by poets and journalists. In the first,
a summer idyll turns into something worse. In this song Bourne
even manages to duet with herself. Then we get a rather jaundiced
view of the denizens of a bar and finally a chunk of social
realism in the Miners Song. Of course, these are hardly jazz
influenced songs and more of interest for the way they illuminate
Martinů's later career. The CD booklet points up links
to his opera Julietta, whose libretto was also offered
to Kurt Weill.
Finally we return
to Weill in French with the songs he wrote for Jacques Deval's
play Marie Galante; Weill probably did the job simply
for the money. The play's star, Florelle, had appeared as Polly
Peachum in the film of L'Opera de quat'sous. To these
Bourne adds Robert Ziegler's orchestration of Weill's French
chanson Youkali. These are delightful with Bourne's feeling
for Weill's vocal lines and the crisp and stylish accompaniment
from Ziegler and the Matrix Ensemble.
There are moments
on this disc when I wished that Bourne had a stronger feel for
the words, but given that she is singing Brecht in French translation,
you have to forgive her. I wish that we'd had the Brecht/Weill
songs in German, but with that caveat this is a stylish and enjoyable
disc.
Robert Hugill
Frances Bourne (mezzo)
