Mary Dibbern
Accompanist and Vocal Coach

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