Martineau Shifts Attention to Henri Duparc

Composer Henri Duparc (source and date unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Readers may recall that this site covered pianist Malcolm Martineau’s project to record the complete songs of Gabriel Fauré. That project concluded roughly a year ago with Signum Classics’ release of the last of the four CDs that had been planned. Tomorrow will see the release of Martineau’s latest project, a recording of the complete songs of Henri Duparc, which fill a single CD. As usual, Amazon.com has created a Web page which is currently processing pre-orders for those worrying about whether the supply will run out within the next 24 hours.

Martineau recruited a generous number of vocalists to participate in his Fauré project. However, since Duparc composed only sixteen songs, it was necessary to account for only four vocal ranges. These were mezzo (Sarah Connolly), tenor (Nicky Spence), baritone (Huw Montague Rendall), and bass (William Thomas). Yes, you read that correctly: No sopranos were involved in the making of this recording. Whether this was due to a nervous disorder that eventually forced him to stop composing in 1885, when he was only 37 years old, is left as an exercise for the clinical musicologist! (Duparc would not die until 1933.)

Where my own listening experiences are concerned, that smaller catalog entailed fewer opportunities for me to get to know Duparc’s songs through recital performances. According to my records, my most recent encounter with a performance of one of these songs pre-dates the pandemic. Mezzo Jamie Barton sang “Phidylé” when she was a featured vocalist for San Francisco Performances (SFP) in November of 2019. On the other hand, two of his songs were included in the Public Solidarity Concert for Notre-Dame de Paris, which was performed in Grace Cathedral two weeks after the devastating fire took place. On that occasion countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen sang two other songs for the mezzo range, “Chanson triste” and “L’invitation au voyage.”

In other words my encounter with Martineau’s latest recording amounted to a major journey of discovery. Such a journey cannot be fulfilled through only a couple of listenings, no matter how attentive the listener may be. One has to cultivate an appreciation for not only the composer’s style but also the motivations behind the decisions he made in selecting texts. Thus, when, about three years ago, I was listening to recordings of Melody Moore singing songs by Aaron Copland, I cited “traces of Gabriel Fauré,” while Jeff Kaliss, who wrote the essay for the booklet accompanying the album, attributed influence to Duparc instead! As I become more familiar with Martineau’s album, I may have to update my thought’s about Copland’s influences.

The good news is that there will be another opportunity to listen to Duparc this spring. One of the vocalists to perform for SFP this season will be J’Nai Bridges. The program she has announced includes “L’invitation au voyage.” By the time that program will be performed near the end of this coming April, I am hoping that my responsiveness as a listener will have benefitted from my getting to known Martineau’s new album.