月光(白遼士/佛瑞) 曼弗列德弦樂四重奏 尚-保羅.富熙庫 男高音 Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Quatuor Manfred / Clairs de Lune - Berlioz & Faure

曼弗列德弦樂四重奏 尚-保羅.富熙庫 男高音

After more than 30 years of intense activity, the repertoire that our quartet has enjoyed, explored and championed is particularly vast. Several characteristics are expressed in it, and one of them is highlighted in this recording: our passion for the repertoire with voice.

The truly rich histories of string quartets, of the French melodie and of the German Lied offer parallels, but curiously, they only rarely intersected (Schoeck, Wellesz, Schoenberg, Eisler, Hindemith, Milhaud wrote for voice and the quartet, but are not among the most sought-after composers). We often approach certain cycles through transcriptions that we commission or create for ourselves (Haydn, Schumann, Dvořák, Brahms, Mahler).

In response to the rich harmonic colours of Berlioz, Gabriel Faure’s string quartet makes its presence felt through its entirely symbolist intimacy, its finely chiselled harmony, and “its thought purified up to the threshold of abstraction and evanescence”

With regard to the Summer Nights and in order to pursue our singular poetic path with Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, our dear quintet partner proposed to us the Faurean vision of Gautier’s Lamento (Faure kept the original title La chanson du pêcheur whereas Berlioz chose Sur les lagunes). In order to develop this long-distance dialogue between the two composers, we were tempted to compare the Clair de lune of Paul Verlaine by Faure with that of Gautier by Berlioz.

This is how Clairs de lune was born, an album more poetic – more dreamlike – than musical, a truly personal album by our quartet, an amorous programme of melodies for voice and string quartet.