Pioneering Boulanger
Recordings by the great scholar, teacher and performing musician are finally remastered
Nadia Boulanger
- The American Decca Recordings Works by Brahms, M-A Charpentier, Monteverdi and Rameau; plus French Renaissance Vocal Music
Nadia Boulanger (piano/conductor)
Eloquence 484 1384 (5 discs)
Eloquence Classics deserve special gratitude for the sympathetically remastered reissue of these early 1950s recordings, most of them appearing on CD for the first time. Early music performance was in its infancy when these discs were recorded in Paris: Charpentier was barely known, and records of Monteverdi and Rameau were few and far between. Nowadays, we do things differently; but what illuminates these performances, often with dazzling radiancy and always with deep insight, is Boulanger's intuitive feeling for the music itself. Her direction possesses enormous vitality which is communicated to her splendid musicians, outstanding among whom are tenor Hugues Cuenod and bass baritone Doda Conrad. Highlights are Medea’s chilling ‘Noires filles du Styx’, with a stentorian Fanfare from Charpentier’s Médée, a Ballet figuré from Rameau’s Zaïs, and Tambourins from the 1757 revival of Hippolyte et Aricie. Sadly, the misleading documentation of both the Rameau items remains uncorrected from their first release, though happily all the imaginative original cover art has been retained. ★★★★★