Nadia Boulanger - Fauré: Requiem - Nocturne Pour Piano N° 6 - Quatuor à Cordes (2021)

On February 17, 1962, the public came to hear, at Carnegie Hall, the third of four concerts conducted by Nadia Boulanger - the first woman to take the pulpit of the New York Philharmonic: Three Psalms of his sister Lili and the Solemn Music of Virgil Thomson (orchestrated for the occasion) will be preceded in the program by Faurй's Requiem (1887-1901). Leonard Bernstein, mounted on stage, specifies that it will be given in memory of Bruno Walter, who died the same morning. “A man who was all kindness, warmth, kindness and devotion. We can only mourn him and pay homage to him. "
The palpable emotion of the performers and the audience charges this performance with exceptional fervor. "Upset", Schuyler Chapin, the director of the classical department of Columbia Records, begged Nadia Boulanger the next day to make a recording of it. " No no no ! », She objected, scalded by the Parisian attempt of 1948, which she still refused to publish. "I hate records! ... and the Carnegie Hall organ is impossible anyway!" "
Fortunately, there remains the radio recording edited by the New York Philharmonic. A miracle of intensity transcends the means of a modest but united choir, weighing each word, suspended from the beat of Mademoiselle. His long sentences, gently curved, land on an orchestra with carefully regulated balances and reliefs (by Bernstein, before the arrival of his beloved teacher?). Too bad if the organ is, indeed, short of breath in the Sanctus, and if the soprano is not up to the occasion - the suave and angelic one of Martha Angelici will come at the end of the album. to console, supported by Maurice Duruflй on the organ of Saint-Eustache. Baritone Donald Gramm, on the other hand, is formidably eloquent, careful not to overdo it, in a Libera me detailed as rarely - listen to how the violins accentuate their ascending features on "requiem aeternam dopa eis"!
Path of stars.
Two intimate and secret scores here extend this “lullaby of death”. In the Nocturne in D flat major (1894), whose serenity becomes cloudy, agitated, to lead us on a “path of stars” (Nectoux), Jean-Michel Damase remains the most subtle of guides. Doesn't the question launched by the viola on the threshold of the last String Quartet (1923-1924) remind you of the four notes, on the second cellos and on the organ, which open the Offertory of the Requiem ? The infinite relief of the nuances and the density of the harmonies make all the richness of the median Andante, whose exaltation never ceases to oscillate, counterbalanced by a tender lament. The original engraving of the Krettly (whose primarius was very appreciated by the composer) captivates us with its urgency, its fever, its lightness in the finale. As with Nadia Boulanger, Faurй is there, very much alive.
Francois Laurent