John Terauds may have proclaimed the death of the art song recital in Toronto, and he may even have a point about recitals with high ticket prices, but the line up outside the Four Seasons Centre yesterday for a recital of French chansons rather suggests that the taste for the form has not gone away.  The admirably chosen programme of songs, mainly by Poulenc with some Ravel and Milhaud thrown in, was performed by members of the COC’s Ensemble Studio.

First up were Mireille Asselin and Timothy Cheung with Poulenc’s Cinq Poèmes de Max Jacob.  Mireille made the most of the comic potential of the texts and sang with the beauty of tone and facility that one has come to expect.

Sasha Djihanian and Jenna Douglas gave us Deux Poèmes de Louis Aragon also by Poulenc.  The sad and angry txts were composed in the aftermath of france’s defeat in 1940 and were admirably suited to Sasha’s dark toned voice.

Cameron McPhail and Tim performed the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée of Ravel.  This was the second time I’ve heard this piece this week!  Cameron sang with some subtlety, not missing the raucous elements of Morand’s text but not overdoing it either.  Rather impressive actually.

Claire de Sévigné and Tim performed the high, fast set Chansons de Ronsard of Milhaud.  These are something of a tour de force and were skillfully navigated by Claire despite a medical emergency(*) in the audience in mid song.  One sometimes forgets just how much focus and singlemindedness is necessary in front of an audience.

Rihab Chaieb and Jenna performed the Banalités of Poulenc; a setting of rather odd texts by Apollinaire.  These texts covered a range of moods from absurd to sentimental and were sung with sensitive variation of mood and colour by Rihab.

The concert finished off with a charming rendition of Poulenc’s torch songish Les chemins de l’amour by Sasha and Jenna.  Sasha could do well on the night club circuit (or at least could have done 60 years ago).  Nice!

Accompaniment throughout was to the high standards that one expects from Tim and Jenna.  It really was a most enjoyable lunchtime despite the unfortunate incident and I’m going to be looking for the texts to those songs because they are a really interesting collection and I only have the English translations.

(*)Most efficiently dealt with by Four Seasons Centre security and front of house staff.