Description

Composed by Debussy mostly before he left Paris for the Villa Medici in Rome in 1885 after having won the prestigious Prix de Rome—a two-year stay that was to prove most wearisome for the young composer—nearly all of these mélodies (French art song) are dedicated to the amateur singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier, whose “melodious fairy voice,” among other attributes, had so enticed him. Debussy weaves simple, charming melodies, which give an inkling of things to come, on wonderfully evocative poems by the likes of Théodore de Banville and Paul Verlaine (including his first attempts on the latter’s Fêtes galantes poems). Purity, grace, and delicacy of expression are what is required of these youthful works; celebrated Canadian soprano Donna Brown’s “crystal-clear voice” (Globe & Mail) and Stéphane Lemelin’s sensitive accompaniment deliver just that in these rarely heard songs.