Saint-Saëns: Mélodies avec orchestre Yann Beuron, Tassis Christoyannis, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana & Markus Poschner

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921):
• 1Angélus03:42
• 2L'attente01:43
• 3Rêverie02:52
• 4Mélodies persanes, Op. 26: No. 1. La brise (version for voice and orchestra)02:22
• 5Extase04:00
• 6La feuille de peuplier (The Poplar Leaf)02:03
• 7L'enlèvement02:07
• 8Les fées02:50
• 9Souvenances (arr. for voice and orchestra)03:36
• 10Désir d'amour (arr. for voice and orchestra)02:14
• 11Les cloches de la mer03:17
• 12Mélodies persanes, Op. 26: No. 2. La splendeur vide (version for voice and orchestra)04:23
• 13Le pas d'armes du Roi Jean04:10
• 14La cloche03:20
• 15Papillons03:03
• 16Plainte02:40
• 17Aimons-nous03:35
• 18Mélodies persanes, Op. 26: No. 5. Au cimetière (version for voice and orchestra)03:51
• 19Danse macabre (version for voice and orchestra)02:17
• Total Runtime58:05

Info for Saint-Saëns: Mélodies avec orchestre

World premiere recording: Although the turn of the twentieth century marked the golden age of French song, the genre was generally accompanied on the piano and only rarely orchestrated by its composers. But Camille Saint-Saëns, a great lover of poetry, was also a champion of the orchestrated mélodie and the French coloristic style. He also wanted to counterbalance the overwhelming popularity of operatic arias in concert programmes. An immense admirer of Victor Hugo, Saint-Saëns set many of his poems to music, including L'Enlèvement, Rêverie, and Le Pas d'armes du Roi Jean, regarded as one of his masterpieces. Exoticism and a certain sense of the supernatural run through such songs as Danse macabre, one of the most popular pieces of classical music, but always heard nowadays either in its version for orchestra alone or performed by a singer with piano accompaniment. Of the twenty-five mélodies with orchestra listed in the catalogue of Saint-Saëns, nineteen are recorded here, all of them for the first time!

With interpreters of the calibre of Yann Beuron and Tassis Christoyannis, the words are perfectly served here and the composer’s coloristic talents heard from the very first bars. This disc is a genuine event that enables us to rediscover a whole segment of the history of vocal music, a renaissance made possible by the Fondation Bru Zane.

Yann Beuron, tenor
Tassis Christoyannis, baritone
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana Markus Poschner, conductor

Yann Beuron
Lyric tenor Yann Beuron is one of the leading French artists of his generation. A regular guest of the Opera Bastille in Paris, he has also begun an important career outside his native country : Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Théâtre de la Monnaie and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, among others. He records regularly for EMI France, Virgin Classics and Erato.

After studies in sociology, Yann BEURON studied singing at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, with Anna Maria Bondi, and obtained unanimously first prize in 1996. In December 1995, he made his debut at the Opéra du Rhin as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, under the direction of William Christie.

The year following, he made his debut at the Palais Garnier in Paris in a new production of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie. He returned to this theatre in 2004 to sing a new production of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole and in 2006 to sing a new production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride. In subsequent years, his engagements rapidly increased: Cosi Fan Tutte (Bordeaux, Stuttgart), Idomeneo (Marseille), Don Giovanni (Lisbon), Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Mignon (Toulouse), Falstaff (Marseille, Festival d'Aix en Provence), La Cenerentola (Brussels, Lausanne), La Belle Hélène (Théâtre du Châtelet), Hamlet and L'Heure Espagnole (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Dialogues des Carmélites (Theater an der Wien).

In 2003, Yann Beuron made his debut in the United States with the San Francisco Opera (Barbiere). This past season, Mr. Beuron returned to the Paris Opera (Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne) and to the Aix Festival (Idomeneo). In future seasons, he will debut at the Mozart Festwochen in Salzburg (Idomeneo), at the Teatro Real in Madrid (Pelléas), at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Barbiere) and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Iphigenie and Pelléas).

A frequent guest soloist on the concert podium, he has performed with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Rotterdam Philhamonic.

Tassis Christoyannis
Regarded as one of the nest baritones of his generation, admired for his acting skills and his musicality, Athens-born Tassis Christoyannis studied piano, singing, conducting and com- position at the Athens Conservatory, before going on to specialise in the Italian repertoire with the baritone Aldo Protti.

A er several years as a member of the Greek National Opera in Athens, he joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where he took major roles in works by Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and others. Now freelance, he sings the principal baritone roles in Italian, French and Russian works at opera houses and festivals all over Europe, including Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Geneva, Glyndebourne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, London, New York etc.

Tassis Christoyannis is also much in demand for his skills as a song recitalist. He is also a composer (concerts, dance, theater).

Booklet for Saint-Saëns: Mélodies avec orchestre