Berlioz: Les Nuits D'ete / Ravel: Sheherazade / Debussy / Poulenc
Here is a great French artist singing the songs of her native country in her native language, with the natural inflection and empathy of one to the manner born. Her voice is beautiful, pure throughout a huge range, focused, intense, infinitely nuanced; she can make it float ethereally or glow with a shimmering radiance, brighten and darken it and carry on two-way conversations. Identifying complete with each song, she communicates its mood, atmosphere, character, expression. She captures the pensive dreaminess, plaintive yearning, outpouring of grief and lamentation, as well as the gaiety and lighthearted teasing of Berlioz' many-facetedLes Nuits d'Été.In Ravel'sShéhérazade, her voice becomes part of the exotic, languidly oriental atmosphere created by the lush, sensuous, glittering orchestration, surging up with the sweeping buildups to thrilling climactic high Gs and B-flats, matching the tremulous flute solo in the second song. The orchestra plays wonderfully, exploiting Ravel's infinitely imaginative, vivid coloration to the utmost. Crespin evokes the secretive intimacy, dream-drugged passion and ice-bound rigidity of Debussy'sSongs of Bilitis. In the Poulenc songs, the contrast between the almost tear-choked mournfulness and the frolicking humor is riveting. John Wustman's splendid partnering adds greatly to the enchantment of this delightful recording.--Edith Eisler