Elliot Madore’s recital with Rachel Andrist was supposed to have happened at Mazzoleni all with a limited live audience last weekend but that didn’t happen and the programme was recorded in an empty Koerner Hall and streamed last night. The programme’s first half was all French and the second half English.

The full programme is:

Maurice Ravel: Don quichotte à dulcinée
– “Chanson Romanesque”
– “Chanson épique”
– “Chanson à boire”
Gabriel Fauré: L’horizon chimérique, op. 118
– “La mer est infinite”
– “Je me suis embarqué”
– “Diane, Séléné”
– “Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte”
Francis Poulenc: Banalités, FP 107
“- Chanson d’Orkenise”
– “Hôtel”
– “Fagnes de Wallonie”
– “Voyage à Paris”
– “Sanglots”

Vaughan Williams: “Let Beauty Awake” from Songs of Travel
Vaughan Williams: “The Roadside Fire” from Songs of Travel
Samuel Barber: “A Green Lowland of Pianos” from Three Songs, op. 45, no. 2
Vaughan Williams: “Silent Noon” from The English Songbook
Barber: “O Boundless, Boundless Evening” from Three Songs, op. 45, no. 3
Vaughan Williams: “Youth and Love” from Songs of Travel
Vaughan Williams: “The Infinite Shining Heavens” from Songs of Travel
Vaughan Williams: “Antiphon” from Five Mystical Songs

I really like Madore’s singing in French.  It’s nicely characterised and the voice has a pleasant, darkish tone.  The English songs are a bit strange.  They are beautifully sung with proper attention to text and his voice is sweet but there’s something quite unusual about his vowel values.  He sounds a bit “foreign”.  It’s certainly not the standard sound that seems instinctive to Brits and is also used by most non-British native anglophones.  I can’t say it’s wrong or even not pleasant.  It’s lovely singing but it does take a bit of getting used to!  Racvhel Andrist, as ever, provided accompaniment of the highest order.

I want to talk about some technical issues now.  This is a really good recording and listening to it again today it sounds fine.  Last night “live” though there were issues.  The stream was breaking up at frequent intervals to the point where it was all but unwatchable.  I don’t think that this was an issue at my end since I’ve been watching a truckload of streamed content lately with no issues.  Now, last. night was free so one can’t complain too much but upcoming RCM offerings are not.  If I had paid $50 to see last night’s stream I would have been pretty unhappy!

The stream is available on demand here though I don’t know for how long.  The program notes including translations are here.