Catalogue

Summary:

“Phan is brilliantly supported by the instrumentalists’ technicolour playing … Much of Phan’s soft singing is tenderly handled, and the moments where he slips into a transparent falsetto, as in Debussy’s ‘L’ombre des arbres’, are deeply moving” – BBC Music Magazine

“He sings with intelligence, sensitivity and poise, not to mention an appealing gentleness and patience. His French is correct … he communicates directly and affectingly … the playing of the orchestra is beautifully alive and alert” – Gramophone

“He brings an astounding range of colours and textures to bear on poetry which he clearly loves and knows inside-out. The Knights suit the action to the word, too, in a reading of Les Illuminations which brings Rimbaud’s ‘parade sauvage’ to vivid, unsettling life” – Presto Music

Following acclaimed albums devoted to Britten, baroque lute songs and German lieder, Grammy Award-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan continues to spread his wings with Illuminations, an album featuring compositions by Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré who were each inspired by the poetry of two 19th-century French literary titans, Paul Verlaine and his protégé and eventual lover Arthur Rimbaud. The intertwined lives of the French poets and composers manifested themselves in Fauré’s impassioned Verlaine-inspired La bonne chanson and Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées drawn from Verlaine’s Romances sans paroles. Just decades later Britten was inspired by Rimbaud’s influential prose-poetry Les Illuminations.

Tracklist:

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845–1924)
La bonne chanson, Op. 61
1. Une sainte en son aureole (2.18)
2. Puisque l’aube grandit (1.55)
3. La lune blanche luit dans les bois (2.31)
4. J’allais par des chemins perfides (1.59)
5. J’ai presque peur en vérité (2.17)
6. Avant que tu ne t’en ailles (2.48)
7. Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été (2.42)
8. N’est-ce pas? (2.33)
9. L’hiver a cessé (3.16)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
Ariettes oubliées, L. 60
10. C’est l’extase (3.07)
11. Il pleure dans mon coeur (2.35)
12. L’ombre des arbres (2.38)
13. Chevaux de bois (3.17)
14. Aquarelles I – Green (2.23)
15. Aquarelles II – Spleen (2.26)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976)
Les Illuminations, Op. 18
16. I. Fanfare (2.28)
17. II. Villes (2.24)
18. IIIa. Phrase (1.11)
19. IIIb. Antique (2.20)
20. IV. Royauté (1.35)
21. V. Marine (0.59)
22. VI. Interlude (2.37)
23. VII. Being beauteous (4.11)
24. VIII. Parade (2.48)
25. IX. Départ (2.43)

Tracks 1 – 15 Recorded September 26 & 27 2017, Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd Company, Marin County, California
Producer, Engineer, editing, mixing & mastering: Marlan Barry
Assistant engineer: Dann Thompson (Debussy) Robert Gatley (Faure)

Track 16 – 25 Recorded October 6, 2017, Drew University Concert Hall
Producer, Engineer, editing, mixing & mastering: Marlan Barry
Special thanks to Ellis Hilton, Concert Hall manager