Karine Deshayes, Ensemble Contraste - Fauré: La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61 & Quatuor avec piano, Op. 15 (2011)

Gabriel Fauré originally wrote his song cycle, La Bonne chanson, for voice and piano, but a few years after its 1894 premiere he created a version with string quintet and piano. He later questioned the wisdom of having made the arrangement, thinking perhaps he was gilding the lily by adding even more sumptuous timbral richness to a work that was already so melodically and harmonically sensuous. Few listeners are likely to complain about his arrangement, though, particularly when it is performed as well as it is here, with mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes and members of Ensemble Contraste. Deshayes has a relatively light lyric voice that still has enough fullness to put across the romantic ardor of the music and the poetry. Temperamentally, too, she sounds well suited for the songs; she conveys the delicacy and vulnerability of the protagonist as well as bold passion and energy. Deshayes is especially masterful in her nuanced shaping and coloring of Fauré's elegant phrases, which blossom with spontaneity and unforced naturalness. Ensemble Contraste plays with supple flexibility, and while their idiomatic accompaniment is beautifully expressive it avoids the kind of excessive effusion the possibility of which must have given the composer second thoughts about this version. The players step into the spotlight for the First Quartet for piano and strings, written about 15 years earlier. It was Fauré's first large-scale work, but there is nothing tentative about it; it's clearly the work of a fully assured composer with plenty to say. It has the melodic grace and harmonic sweetness, along with a subtle push at the boundaries of convention, that characterize Fauré's music and it has an irrepressible youthful energy. The players give themselves fully to its full-throated Romantic passions and its moods of bittersweet yearning. The pairing of these lovely works in these exemplary performances makes this an album that should have strong appeal for fans of late Romantic chamber and vocal music. The sound of Zig-Zag Territoires' CD is clean and nicely present, but a little on the cool side; a warmer ambience would have better shown off Deshayes' performance in particular.