Recitals
with Kurt Ollmann. Click for information
The following review appeared in the June 2002 issue of
CHOICE
(publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries)
INTERPRETING THE SONGS OF JACQUES LEGUERNEY: a guide for study and performance
by Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball and Patrick Choukroun. Pendragon Press, 2001.
ISBN1-57647-016-4
Leguerney ranks as the latest--perhaps the last--great exponent of the mélodie.
In this well-researched and practical manual, Dibbern, Kimball, and Choukroun
create a sympathetic study of a composer who, although flourishing during WW II
and the Vichy regime, inhabited his own imaginative world unhampered by time and
events. Ensconced in his elegant Parisian quarters, he was surrounded by décor
that could well have stemmed from the First Empire. To be in the presence of
Leguerney was to comprehend his unique ability to penetrate classic poetry from
a period when the French language itself was being defined and purified by seven
Renaissance poets, Ronsard chief among them; Leguerney's great opus Poèmes
de la Pléiade offers 32 profound musical settings, most from this source.
Leguerney made no distinction between text and musical realization. Singers and
pianists both will find helpful performance suggestions for these exquisite
songs. Texts are accompanied by IPA symbols; English translations are provided.
Like Graham Johnson's outstanding A French Song Companion, this volume
should engender high enthusiasm for the mélodie. Recommended for all performers
devoted to promoting the elegant artsong.
---Richard Miller, Oberlin College
