Fleur de mon âme - KAREN CARGILL SIMON LEPPER - IDAGIO
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Fleur
de mon âme
KAREN CARGILL
SIMON LEPPER
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Credits
Tracklist
Programme note
Sung texts
Biographies
Fleur
de mon âme
KAREN CARGILL
SIMON LEPPER
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Recorded in New Auditorium, Post-production Cover Image
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, UK, Julia Thomas © Meredith Motley
on 22–25 February 2020
Recording Producer & Engineer Design
Philip Hobbs stoempstudio.com
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Fleur de mon âme 59:43 MENU
KAREN CARGILL
mezzo-soprano
SIMON LEPPER
piano
Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947)
1 — À Chloris 3:08
2 — Le rossignol des lilas 2:03
3 — L’énamourée 3:41
4 — Infidélité 2:24
5 — Les fontaines 2:10
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Chansons de Bilitis
6 — La flûte de Pan 2:59
7 — La chevelure 3:48
8 — Le tombeau des naïades 2:56
Joseph Jongen (1873–1953)
9 — Calmes, aux quais déserts, Op. 54 4:20
with RSNO soloists
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Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)
10 — Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37 7:11
with RSNO soloists
11 — Sérénade italienne, Op. 2 No. 5 2:08
12 — Le charme, Op. 2 No. 2 1:50
13 — Le colibri, Op. 2 No. 7 2:58
14 — Les papillons, Op. 2 No. 3 1:26
Henri Duparc (1848–1933)
15 — L’invitation au voyage 4:15
16 — Chanson triste 3:17
17 — Extase 3:08
18 — Phidylé 5:14
ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL
ORCHESTRA SOLOISTS
MAYA IWABUCHI violin 1
X ANDER VAN VLIET violin 2
TOM DUNN viola
ALEKSEI KISELIOV cello
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© Nadine Boyd
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Fleur de mon âme
When French poets write of love, they draw on a common stock of images:
flowers, birds and water. And so we find collections of garlands, lilacs and roses;
doves, hummingbirds and nightingales; as well as fountains, rivers and seas. These
images encode the poet’s strong passions in apparently naive language that can
lend itself to music. In Henri de Régnier’s poem Les fontaines set by Reynaldo
Hahn, a flower is even described as sonorous (‘fleur sonore’) all while the poem
brims with the tension of a lovers’ tryst. Composers are perhaps less constrained
by the expectation for acceptable language, allowing their musical language to
unlock the raptures and ecstasies, as well as the despair and desperation, that
are latent in the poems themselves.
Reynaldo Hahn’s song output hovers between the innocent and the
hedonistic. Hahn often self-accompanied his own performances, which sug-
gests a lightness of intent best suited for domestic settings rather than the
recital stage. Hahn was invited in 1913 to present a series of lectures on sing-
ing, in which he advocated keeping excessive emotion in check in favour of
‘des sensations graduées’ (‘graduated sensations’). Hahn’s songs give us all the
lyrical luxuriance we might hope for while holding the emotive content back
just enough so as not to tip into overblown effusions. The expressive piano lines
in Hahn’s songs speak volumes, as much as the absence of the piano does –
briefly – in the closing line of Infidélité where the lover is suddenly left abandoned.
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Of the hundred or so songs that Hahn composed, some are light-hearted
folk-chansons, whereas the five presented here are art songs drawing on
romantic and symbolist poetry from a cluster of respected authors from the
seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Hahn’s setting of Théodore de Banville’s
L’énamourée, composed in 1891, has also been captured in his own 1919 recor-
ding, self-accompanying at the piano and presenting the lyrical song as full of sus-
penseful rubato.
Claude Debussy’s three Chansons de Bilitis draw on a much longer
poetic-narrative work published by Pierre Louÿs in 1894 that purported to be
translations from a ‘lost’ Ancient Greek source supposedly telling the life of a
sixth-century BC woman, Bilitis. Debussy’s 1897 Bilitis settings mark a turning
point in his song language, tending towards a more sophisticated sensua-
lity which builds on the success of his 1894 Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
and presages his characterization of Mélisande in his 1902 opera Pelléas et
Mélisande. The story that Debussy presents in the three Bilitis songs comes
from the first section of Louÿs’ poetic life history of this fictional woman,
recounting her bucolic childhood in Pamphylia, a region in the Antalya province of
modern-day Turkey, and capturing the moment of her loss of innocence. Hinted at
in La flûte de Pan, this is expressed most overtly in the second song La chevelure in
which the image of the woman’s hair is used as code for the entwining of two bodies.
The third song signals the closure of one chapter in Bilitis’ life as she looks ahead to
a new way of inhabiting the world, and her own sexuality, free from the men who
have pursued her in her youth. Louÿs’ prose-style text influences Debussy’s vocal
writing, inspiring a largely syllabic setting using only small intervals between notes
rather than more lyrical contours.
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A rare treat is Belgian composer Joseph Jongen’s setting of Calmes, aux
quais déserts for voice, piano and string quartet. Jongen was director of the
Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles throughout much of the 1920s–30s. While Jongen
grew up in Liège, his family were from Flanders, and his choice of poet for this song,
symbolist Albert Samain, also came from a Flemish family, born in Lille but living
and writing in Paris. As the melody passes between the strings, with a chromati-
cally altered rising sixth which marks the volta of the sonnet, day turns into night
and the poet allows his mind to turn to dreams of love.
Moving into the realm of the despair at a lost love, Ernest Chausson’s expan-
sive Chanson perpétuelle uses the same chamber forces – voice, piano and string
quartet – although two other versions also exist, for voice and piano, and for voice
and orchestra. It was Chausson’s last completed work, written in 1898–9, and uses a
16-stanza poem by Charles Cros (setting 12 of them), in which a woman recounts her
abandonment: ‘Mon bien-aimé s’en est allé’ (‘My beloved has gone away’) … ‘Sans
moi’ (‘Without me’). The motivic writing, particularly the intervallic expressions in
the piano to signal death (‘je meurs’) hint at Chausson’s Wagnerian influences, inti-
mately connecting love and death, as the woman plots her own death by drowning.
A much earlier setting, of a Paul Bourget text, Sérénade italienne, Op. 2, offers a
happier scene, as two lovers head out in a boat to sea so as to furtively embrace
under the starlight. Chausson colours the story with enharmonic shifts, particularly
as the lover switches to directly address the beloved: ‘Nous pouvons échanger nos
âmes’ (‘We can exchange our souls’). The intensity of a burgeoning love story is felt
in the less animated Op. 2 setting of Paul-Armand Silvestre’s poem Pour une voix
which Chausson retitles as Le charme, whereas in another Op. 2 setting, Leconte
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de Lisle’s Le colibri, the supposed naivety of the imagery of the hummingbird
drinking from a flower is rendered in more overtly suggestive harmonies. A simi-
larly suggestive song from the Op. 2 collection, Les papillons, uses the image of
the butterfly, on a text by Théophile Gautier, which in Chausson’s delicate render-
ing might imply a more flighty love story.
Henri Duparc’s songs are perhaps more insistently filled with smouldering
tensions. In the magisterial 1870 song L’invitation au voyage, Duparc paints an
expansive canvas, with chromatic ripples that exploit French augmented sixths
and sevenths while grounding large portions of the song in a tonic-dominant pedal.
Using Charles Baudelaire’s yearning-filled poem which imagines a better life with
his beloved in a far-distant land, Duparc emphasizes the fulfilment of the lovers’
desires expressed in the words ‘C’est pour assouvir / Ton moindre désir’ (‘To sa-
tisfy / Your slightest desire’). The deceptively simple ‘sad song’ of Chanson triste is
perhaps Duparc’s most lyrical song, mimicking the lovers’ ballad referenced in the
poem. The poet, Jean Lahor, is in fact a pseudonym for the symbolist poet Henri
Cazalis, close friend and correspondent of Stéphane Mallarmé. Another Lahor/
Cazalis setting is rendered in the Tristan-infused opening of Extase, which allies
love and death, through the ‘mort exquise’ (‘exquisite death’) which is picked up
in the closing piano coda. In Phidylé, Duparc uses a Leconte de Lisle poem which
deploys all of the common code-words for love – water (‘des sources’), birds (‘les
oiseaux’) and flowers (‘des églantiers’) – to build towards a passionate climax
which is never fully expressed in the words of the song, but, like in Extase, finds
itself conveyed in the long piano outro.
© Helen Abbott, 2021
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1 — À Chloris To Chloris
S’il est vrai, Chloris, que tu m’aimes, If it be true, Chloris, that you love me,
Mais j’entends, que tu m’aimes bien, And I’m told you love me dearly,
Je ne crois point que les rois mêmes I do not believe that even kings
Aient un bonheur pareil au mien. Can match the happiness I know.
Que la mort serait importune Even death would be powerless
À venir changer ma fortune To alter my fortune
Pour la félicité des cieux ! With the promise of heavenly bliss!
Tout ce qu’on dit de l’ambroisie All that they say of ambrosia
Ne touche point ma fantaisie Does not stir my imagination
Au prix des grâces de tes yeux. Like the favour of your eyes.
Théophile de Viau (1590–1626) Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
2 — Le rossignol des lilas The nightingale among the lilac
Ô premier rossignol qui viens O first nightingale to appear
Dans les lilas, sous ma fenêtre, Among the lilac, beneath my window,
Ta voix m’est douce à reconnaître ! How sweet to recognize your voice!
Nul accent n’est semblable au tien ! There is no song like yours!
Fidèle aux amoureux liens, Faithful to the bonds of love,
Trille encor, divin petit être ! Trill away, divine little being!
Ô premier rossignol qui viens O first nightingale to appear
Dans les lilas, sous ma fenêtre ! Among the lilac, beneath my window!
Nocturne ou matinal, combien Night or morning – O how
Ton hymne à l’amour me pénètre ! Your love-song strikes to my heart!
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Tant d’ardeur fait en moi renaître Such ardour re-awakens in me
L’écho de mes avrils anciens, Echoes of April days long past,
Ô premier rossignol qui viens ! O first nightingale to appear!
Léopold Dauphin (1847–1925) Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
3 — L’énamourée The beloved one
Ils se disent, ma colombe, They say, my dove,
Que tu rêves, morte encore, That you are still dead and dreaming,
Sous la pierre d’une tombe : Beneath a tombstone;
Mais pour l’âme qui t’adore, But for the soul that adores you,
Tu t’éveilles ranimée, You awaken, revived,
Ô pensive bien-aimée ! O pensive beloved!
Par les blanches nuits d’étoiles, Through the sleepless nights,
Dans la brise qui murmure, In the murmuring breeze,
Je caresse tes longs voiles, I caress your long veils,
Ta mouvante chevelure, Your swaying hair,
Et tes ailes demi-closes And your half-closed wings
Qui voltigent sur les roses ! Which flutter among the roses!
Ô délices, je respire Oh delights, I breathe
Tes divines tresses blondes ! Your divine blond tresses!
Ta voix pure, cette lyre, Your pure voice, a kind of lyre,
Suit la vague sur les ondes, Moves on the swell of the waters,
Et, suave, les effleure, And touches them gently, suavely,
Comme un cygne qui se pleure ! Like a lamenting swan!
Théodore de Banville (1823–1891) Translation © Peter Low, 2002
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4 — Infidélité Infidelity
Voici l’orme qui balance Here is the elm that sways
Son ombre sur le sentier ; Its shadow on the path;
Voici le jeune églantier, Here is the young wild rose,
Le bois où dort le silence. The wood where silence sleeps.
Le banc de pierre où le soir The stone bench where, at evening,
Nous aimions nous asseoir. We would love to sit.
Voici la voûte embaumée Here is the fragrant canopy
D’ébéniers et de lilas, Of ebony and lilac trees,
Où, lorsque nous étions las, Where, when we were tired,
Ensemble, ma bien-aimée ! Together, my beloved,
Sous des guirlandes de fleurs, Beneath garlands of flowers,
Nous laissions fuir les chaleurs. We would let the heat waft by.
L’air est pur, le gazon doux, The air is pure, sweet the grass,
Rien n’a donc changé que vous. Nothing has changed but you.
Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
5 — Les fontaines The fountains
Pour que ton rire clair, jeune, tendre et léger, In order for your clear laughter – young, tender, and light –
S’épanouisse en fleur sonore, To open up sonorously, like a flower,
Il faut qu’avril verdisse aux pousses du verger, April must turn the orchard green with buds,
Plus vertes d’aurore en aurore, Growing more green from one dawn to the next;
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Il faut que l’air égal annonce le printemps The pleasant air must announce the spring,
Et que la première hirondelle And the first swallow,
Rase d’un vol aigu les roseaux de l’étang In powerful flight, must skim the reeds of the pond
Qui mire son retour fidèle ! That reflects its loyal return!
Mais, quoique l’écho rie à ton rire avec toi, But though the echo of your laughter laughs with you,
Goutte à goutte et d’une eau lointaine, A dripping of far-off water,
N’entends-tu pas gémir et répondre à ta voix Do you not hear moaning and answering your voice
La plainte faible des fontaines ? The faint lament of the fountains?
Henri de Régnier (1864–1936) Translation © Emily Ezust, 2018
6 — La flûte de Pan The flute of Pan
Pour le jour des Hyacinthies, For Hyacinthus day
il m’a donné une syrinx he gave me a syrinx
faite de roseaux bien taillés, made of carefully cut reeds,
unis avec la blanche cire qui est douce bonded with white wax which tastes
à mes lèvres comme le miel. sweet to my lips like honey.
Il m’apprend à jouer, He teaches me to play,
assise sur ses genoux ; as I sit on his lap;
mais je suis un peu tremblante. but I am a little fearful.
Il en joue après moi, si doucement He plays it after me, so gently
que je l’entends à peine. that I scarcely hear him.
Nous n’avons rien à nous dire, We have nothing to say,
tant nous sommes près l’un de l’autre ; so close are we one to another,
mais nos chansons veulent se répondre, but our songs try to answer each other,
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et tour à tour nos bouches and our mouths
s’unissent sur la flûte. join in turn on the flute.
Il est tard ; voici le chant des grenouilles It is late; here is the song of the green frogs
vertes qui commence avec la nuit. that begins with the night.
Ma mère ne croira jamais My mother will never believe
que je suis restée si longtemps I stayed out so long
à chercher ma ceinture perdue. to look for my lost sash.
Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925) Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
7 — La chevelure The tresses of hair
Il m’a dit : « Cette nuit, j’ai rêvé. He said to me: ‘Last night I dreamed.
J’avais ta chevelure autour de mon cou. I had your tresses around my neck.
J’avais tes cheveux comme un collier noir I had your hair like a black necklace
autour de ma nuque et sur ma poitrine. all round my nape and over my breast.
« Je les caressais, et c’étaient les miens ; ‘I caressed it and it was mine;
et nous étions liés pour toujours ainsi, and we were united thus for ever
par la même chevelure la bouche sur la bouche, by the same tresses, mouth on mouth,
ainsi que deux lauriers n’ont souvent qu’une racine. just as two laurels often share one root.
« Et peu à peu, il m’a semblé, ‘And gradually it seemed to me,
tant nos membres étaient confondus, so intertwined were our limbs,
que je devenais toi-même that I was becoming you,
ou que tu entrais en moi comme mon songe. » or you were entering into me like a dream.’
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Quand il eut achevé, When he had finished,
il mit doucement ses mains sur mes épaules, he gently set his hands on my shoulders
et il me regarda d’un regard si tendre, and gazed at me so tenderly
que je baissai les yeux avec un frisson. that I lowered my eyes with a shiver.
Pierre Louÿs Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
8 — Le tombeau des naïades The tomb of the naiads
Le long du bois couvert de givre, Along the frost-bound wood I walked;
je marchais ; mes cheveux devant ma bouche my hair across my mouth,
se fleurissaient de petits glaçons, blossomed with tiny icicles,
et mes sandales étaient lourdes and my sandals were heavy
de neige fangeuse et tassée. with muddy, packed snow.
Il me dit : « Que cherches-tu ? » – He said to me: ‘What do you seek?’
« Je suis la trace du satyre. ‘I follow the satyr’s track.
Ses petits pas fourchus alternent His little cloven hoof-marks
comme des trous dans un manteau blanc. » alternate like holes in a white cloak.’
Il me dit : « Les satyres sont morts. He said to me: ‘The satyrs are dead.
« Les satyres et les nymphes aussi. ‘The satyrs and the nymphs too.
Depuis trente ans For thirty years
il n’a pas fait un hiver aussi terrible. there has not been so harsh a winter.
La trace que tu vois est celle d’un bouc. The tracks you see are those of a goat.
Mais restons ici, où est leur tombeau. » But let us stay here, where their tomb is.’
Et avec le fer de sa houe il cassa la glace And with the iron head of his hoe he broke the ice
de la source où jadis riaient les naïades. of the spring, where the naiads used to laugh.
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Il prenait de grands morceaux froids, He picked up some huge cold fragments,
et les soulevant vers le ciel pâle, and, raising them to the pale sky,
il regardait au travers. gazed through them.
Pierre Louÿs Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
9 — Calmes, aux quais déserts Calm, on deserted quays
Calmes, aux quais déserts s’endorment les bateaux. Calm, on deserted quays the boats drowse.
Les besognes du jour rude sont terminées, The day’s arduous tasks are done,
Et le bleu crépuscule aux mains efféminées And the effeminate hands of blue dusk
Éteint le fleuve ardent qui roulait des métaux. Extinguish the burning river of oozing metal.
Les ateliers fiévreux desserrent leurs étaux, The feverish factories unclamp their vices,
Et, les cheveux au vent, les fillettes minées And the haggard girls, with windswept hair,
Vers les vitrines d’or courent, illuminées, Run towards gold-gleaming shop windows
Meurtrir leur désir pauvre aux diamants brutaux. To satisfy their poor desire on brutal diamonds.
Sur la ville noircie, où le peuple déferle, On the darkened town, whose folk unfurl,
Le ciel a des douceurs de turquoise et de perle, The sky sheds soothing turquoise and pearl,
Le ciel semble, ce soir d’automne, défaillir. The sky seems to falter on this autumn evening.
L’heure passe comme une femme sous un voile ; Time passes like a woman beneath a veil;
Et, dans l’ombre, mon cœur s’ouvre pour recueillir And in the shadows my heart opens to gather
Ce qui restait de rêve à la dernière étoile. What remained of dreams as the last star shone.
Albert Victor Samain (1858–1900) Translation © Richard Stokes, 2021
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10 — Chanson perpétuelle Perpetual song
Bois frissonnants, ciel étoilé, Quivering woods, starry sky,
Mon bien-aimé s’en est allé My beloved has gone away
Emportant mon cœur désolé. Taking with him my desolate heart.
Vents, que vos plaintives rumeurs, Winds, may your plaintive noises,
Que vos chants, rossignols charmeurs, Charming nightingales, may your songs
Aillent lui dire que je meurs. Go to tell him I’m dying.
Le premier soir qu’il vint ici From the first evening he came here
Mon âme fut à sa merci, My soul was at his mercy,
De fierté je n’eus plus souci. I no longer cared about pride.
Mes regards étaient pleins d’aveux, My eyes kept telling him my thoughts,
II me prit dans ses bras nerveux He took me in his nervous arms
Et me baisa près des cheveux. And kissed my head close to my hair.
J’en eus un grand frémissement. That caused me a great trembling.
Et puis je ne sais plus comment And then, I no longer know how,
II est devenu mon amant. He became my lover.
Je lui disais : « Tu m’aimeras I kept saying: ‘You will love me
Aussi longtemps que tu pourras ! » For as long as you are able!’
Je ne dormais bien qu’en ses bras. I would sleep well only in his arms.
Mais lui, sentant son cœur éteint, But he, feeling his heart grown cold,
S’en est allé l’autre matin Departed some mornings ago,
Sans moi dans un pays lointain. Without me, for a distant land.
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Puisque je n’ai plus mon ami, Since I have my lover no longer
Je mourrai dans l’étang parmi I will die in the pond, among
Les fleurs sous le flot endormi. The flowers, under the sleeping water.
Sur le bord arrivée, au vent Pausing on the edge, to the wind
Je dirai son nom en rêvant I will speak his name, while dreaming
Que là je I’attendis souvent. That I often awaited him there.
Et comme en un linceul doré, And as if in a golden shroud,
Dans mes cheveux défaits, au gré With my hair undone, I will let myself go
Du vent je m’abandonnerai. Wherever the wind takes me.
Les bonheurs passés verseront The happy times I have known will shed
Leur douce lueur sur mon front Their gentle light on my forehead
Et les joncs verts m’enlaceront. And the green reeds will entwine me.
Et mon sein croira, frémissant And my breast will believe, as it trembles
Sous l’enlacement caressant, Caressed and entwined,
Subir l’étreinte de l’absent. That the absent one is embracing me.
Charles Cros (1842–1888) Translation © Peter Low, 2016
11 — Sérénade italienne Italian serenade
Partons en barque sur la mer Let’s go out in a boat on the sea
Pour passer la nuit aux étoiles. To spend the night under the stars.
Vois, il souffle juste assez d’air Look, it’s blowing just enough breeze
Pour enfler la toile des voiles. To swell the canvas of the sails.
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Le vieux pêcheur italien The old Italian fisherman
Et ses deux fils qui nous conduisent, And his two sons, who sail us out,
Écoutent, mais n’entendent rien Hear but understand nothing
Aux mots que nos bouches se disent. Of the words we say to each other.
Sur la mer calme et sombre, vois : On the calm dark sea, look!
Nous pouvons échanger nos âmes, We can exchange our souls,
Et nul ne comprendra nos voix And our voices will not be understood
Que la nuit, le ciel et les lames. Except by the night, the sky and the waves.
Paul Bourget (1852–1935) Translation © Peter Low, 2000
12 — Le charme The charm
Quand ton sourire me surprit, When your smile caught me unawares,
Je sentis frémir tout mon être ; I felt my whole being quiver;
Mais ce qui domptait mon esprit, But what subdued my spirit,
Je ne pus d’abord le connaître. I could at first not tell.
Quand ton regard tomba sur moi, When your gaze fell upon me,
Je sentis mon âme se fondre ; I felt my soul dissolve;
Mais ce que serait cet émoi, But what this emotion might be,
Je ne pus d’abord en répondre. I could at first not know.
Ce qui me vainquit à jamais, What vanquished me forever
Ce fut un plus douloureux charme Was a more sorrowful charm
Et je n’ai su que je t’aimais And I only knew I loved you
Qu’en voyant ta première larme ! When I saw your first tear!
Paul-Armand Silvestre (1837–1901) Translation © Thomas A. Gregg
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13 — Le colibri The hummingbird
Le vert colibri, le roi des collines, The green hummingbird, the king of the hills,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair On seeing the dew and gleaming sun
Luire dans son nid tissé d’herbes fines, Shine in his nest of fine woven grass,
Comme un frais rayon s’échappe dans l’air. Darts into the air like a shaft of light.
II se hâte et vole aux sources voisines, He hurries and flies to the nearby springs
Où les bambous font le bruit de la mer, Where the bamboos sound like the sea,
Où I’açoka rouge aux odeurs divines Where the red hibiscus with its heavenly scent
S’ouvre et porte au cœur un humide éclair. Unveils the glint of dew at its heart.
Vers la fleur dorée, il descend, se pose, He descends, and settles on the golden flower,
Et boit tant d’amour dans la coupe rose Drinks so much love from the rosy cup
Qu’il meurt, ne sachant s’il l’a pu tarir. That he dies, not knowing if he’d drunk it dry.
Sur ta lèvre pure, ô ma bien-aimée, On your pure lips, O my beloved,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir, My own soul too would sooner have died
Du premier baiser qui l’a parfumée. From that first kiss which scented it.
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle Translation © Richard Stokes
(1818–1894)
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14 — Les papillons The butterflies
Les papillons couleur de neige Snow-coloured butterflies
Volent par essaims sur la mer ; Swarm over the sea;
Beaux papillons blancs, quand pourrai-je Beautiful white butterflies, when might I
Prendre le bleu chemin de l’air ? Take to the azure path of the air?
Savez-vous, ô belle des belles, Do you know, O beauty of beauties,
Ma bayadère aux yeux de jais, My jet-eyed bayadère,
S’ils me voulaient prêter leurs ailes, Were they to lend me their wings,
Dites, savez-vous où j’irais ? Do you know where I would go?
Sans prendre un seul baiser aux roses Without kissing a single rose,
À travers vallons et forêts, Across valleys and forests
J’irais à vos lèvres mi-closes, I’d fly to your half-closed lips,
Fleur de mon âme, et j’y mourrais. Flower of my soul, and there would die.
Théophile Gautier Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
15 — L’invitation au voyage Invitation to journey
Mon enfant, ma sœur, My child, my sister,
Songe à la douceur Think how sweet
D’aller là-bas vivre ensemble ! To journey there and live together!
Aimer à loisir, To love as we please,
Aimer et mourir To love and die
Au pays qui te ressemble ! In the land that is like you!
Les soleils mouillés The watery suns
22MENU
De ces ciels brouillés Of those hazy skies
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes Hold for my spirit
Si mystérieux The same mysterious charms
De tes traîtres yeux, As your treacherous eyes
Brillant à travers leurs larmes. Shining through their tears.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté, There – nothing but order and beauty dwell,
Luxe, calme et volupté ! Abundance, calm, and sensuous delight!
Vois sur ces canaux See on those canals
Dormir ces vaisseaux Those vessels sleeping,
Dont l’humeur est vagabonde ; Vessels with a restless soul;
C’est pour assouvir To satisfy
Ton moindre désir Your slightest desire
Qu’ils viennent du bout du monde. They come from the ends of the earth.
Les soleils couchants The setting suns
Revêtent les champs, Clothe the fields,
Les canaux, la ville entière, Canals and all the town
D’hyacinthe et d’or ; With hyacinth and gold;
Le monde s’endort The world falls asleep
Dans une chaude lumière. In a warm light.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté, There – nothing but order and beauty dwell,
Luxe, calme et volupté ! Abundance, calm, and sensuous delight!
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) Translation © Richard Stokes
23MENU
16 — Chanson triste Song of sadness
Dans ton cœur dort un clair de lune, Moonlight slumbers in your heart,
Un doux clair de lune d’été, A gentle summer moonlight,
Et pour fuir la vie importune, And to escape the cares of life
Je me noierai dans ta clarté. I shall drown myself in your light.
J’oublierai les douleurs passées, I shall forget past sorrows,
Mon amour, quand tu berceras My sweet, when you cradle
Mon triste cœur et mes pensées My sad heart and my thoughts
Dans le calme aimant de tes bras. In the loving calm of your arms.
Tu prendras ma tête malade, You will rest my poor head,
Oh ! quelquefois sur tes genoux, Ah! sometimes on your lap,
Et lui diras une ballade And recite to it a ballad
Qui semblera parler de nous ; That will seem to speak of us;
Et dans tes yeux pleins de tristesses, And from your eyes full of sorrow,
Dans tes yeux alors je boirai From your eyes I shall then drink
Tant de baisers et de tendresses So many kisses and so much love
Que peut-être je guérirai. That perhaps I shall be healed.
Henri Cazalis (1840–1909) Translation © Richard Stokes
24MENU
17 — Extase Rapture
Sur un lys pâle mon cœur dort On a pale lily my heart is sleeping
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort … A sleep as sweet as death …
Mort exquise, mort parfumée Exquisite death, death perfumed
Du souffle de la bien-aimée … By the breath of the beloved …
Sur ton sein pâle mon cœur dort On your pale breast my heart is sleeping
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort … A sleep as sweet as death …
Henri Cazalis Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
18 — Phidylé Phidylé
L’herbe est molle au sommeil The grass is soft for sleep
sous les frais peupliers, beneath the cool poplars,
Aux pentes des sources moussues, On the banks of the mossy springs,
Qui, dans les prés en fleur That flow in flowering meadows
germant par mille issues, from a thousand sources,
Se perdent sous les noirs halliers. And vanish beneath dark thickets.
Repose, ô Phidylé ! Midi sur les feuillages Rest, O Phidylé! Noon on the leaves
Rayonne, et t’invite au sommeil. Is gleaming, inviting you to sleep.
Par le trèfle et le thym, By the clover and thyme,
seules, en plein soleil, alone, in the bright sunlight,
Chantent les abeilles volages. The fickle bees are humming.
Un chaud parfum circule A warm fragrance floats
au détour des sentiers, about the winding paths,
25MENU
La rouge fleur des blés s’incline, The red flowers of the cornfield droop,
Et les oiseaux, And the birds,
rasant de l’aile la colline, skimming the hillside with their wings,
Cherchent l’ombre des églantiers. Seek the shade of the eglantine.
Mais, quand l’Astre, But when the sun,
incliné sur sa courbe éclatante, low on its dazzling curve,
Verra ses ardeurs s’apaiser, Sees its brilliance wane,
Que ton plus beau sourire Let your loveliest smile
et ton meilleur baiser and finest kiss
Me récompensent de l’attente ! Reward me to for my waiting!
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle Translation © Richard Stokes, 2000
26Karen Cargill MENU
mezzo-soprano
Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill studied at the Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland and was the winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award.
Cargill regularly sings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The
Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle
Dresden, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Danish National Symphony
Orchestra and Concertgebouworkest. She has worked with conductors inclu-
ding Donald Runnicles, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle,
Daniele Gatti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Robin Ticciati, Edward Gardner,
Mariss Jansons and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
Opera highlights have included appearances at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra
national de Montpellier, Glyndebourne Festival and Edinburgh International Festival,
with roles including Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Erda in Das Rheingold and
Siegfried, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites
and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle. She appears regularly at the BBC Proms and the
Edinburgh International Festival.
27MENU
Highlights with her regular recital partner Simon Lepper include appear-
ances at Wigmore Hall, London, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Kennedy Center,
Washington, and Carnegie Hall, New York, as well as recitals for BBC Radio 3. With
Lepper she recorded a critically acclaimed recital of lieder by Alma and Gustav
Mahler for Linn for whom she has also recorded Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été and La
mort de Cléopâtre with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
In July 2018 Cargill was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal
Conservatoire of Scotland. She is also Patron of the National Girls Choir of Scotland.
28Simon Lepper MENU
piano
Simon Lepper read music at King’s College, Cambridge, before stu-
dying collaborative piano under Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music in
London and later under Ruben Lifschitz at the Académie de Royaumont in France.
Specializing in song accompaniment, Lepper has regularly colla-
borated with singers including Benjamin Appl, Ilker Arcayürek, Christiane
Karg, Karen Cargill, Stéphane Degout, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sally Matthews
and Mark Padmore. He performs extensively in venues around the world inclu-
ding Carnegie Hall, New York, and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the festivals of
Verbier, Ravinia and Edinburgh, and the Frankfurt, Geneva, Bordeaux and Brussels
opera houses. In his home country, he regularly performs at the Wigmore Hall
where he has also curated a series on the songs of Joseph Marx.
Lepper is a committed teacher and is currently professor of collaborative
piano and a vocal repertoire coach at the Royal College of Music, London. Since
2003 he has been the official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
competition.
His discography includes a live recital album with Stéphane Degout, a
recording of Mahler lieder with Karen Cargill, two volumes of Debussy songs
and a Strauss album with Gillian Keith, the complete songs of Jonathan Dove
29MENU
with Kitty Whately, Schubert songs with Ilker Arcayürek and a recital album with
Dame Felicity Palmer.
WWW.SIMONLEPPER.COM
© Patrick Allen
30Also available on Linn MENU
CKD 453 CKD 610
Karen Cargill Robin Ticciati
Simon Lepper Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Alma & Gustav Mahler Lieder Magdalena Kožená
Ravel & Duparc: Aimer et mourir
CKR 421
Robin Ticciati CKD 637
Scottish Chamber Orchestra Catriona Morison
Karen Cargill Malcolm Martineau
Berlioz: Les nuits d’été The dark night has vanished
31MENU
CKD 453 CKD 610
CKR 421 CKD 637
32MENU
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