HAHN: Le Rossignol Eperdu
Earl Wild, p – Ivory 72006 – (2 CD) 133 minutes
Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947) is a composer worthy of serious attention. Unless the refinement of his work is completely beyond the grasp of the modern Dark Age which our world is becoming, a little more each day…
Although he belonged to the inner circle of the Parisian musical scene, Hahn’s fame reached a wider public because of works for the stage such as his ballet Le bal de Béatrice and his operetta Ciboulette, sung by the very popular Yvonne Printemps. These works achieved mass appeal by responding to the popular taste of the time, but songs like L’heure exquise and Si mes vers avaient des ailes soar with a timeless beauty that assures them a place at the pinnacle of vocal music. Clarity, distinction, articulation, lightness, spiritual elegance that leaves no room for vulgar sentimentality, all these qualities of his songs can be found in the 53 poems for piano that make up Le rossignol éperdu [The Bewildered Nightingale]. In form, it resembles Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concert, Chabrier’s Pièces Pittoresques or even Mompou’s Fêtes Lointaines but its spirit magnifies the quintessence of French sensibility, carefully traced throughout the four suites that compose the work. A musical love letter or intimate little encyclopedia filled with allusions and epigraphs, this work would best be read with score in hand (Heugel publisher): devotees of literature will be delighted to learn that Marcel Proust, Hahn’s alter ego, wrote about his friend, "All that I have accomplished is because of Reynaldo." Just as in Debussy’s Preludes, these epigraphs are also metaphors, hypallages and paradigms that can be interpreted ad libitum. But isn’t it true that interpretation is the essence of music? It is not entirely surprising that a great pianist like Earl Wild should turn his attention to The Bewildered Nightingale. Only a true musician would be able to breathe life and finesse into these short pieces whose apparent simplicity would foil the efforts of lesser keyboard players. This is the first complete version of Hahn’s Bewildered Nightingale on disc; Catherine Joly recorded a selection (Accord 20052). It allows us the pleasure of treading this terrain in Wild’s company. He offers an ethereal, internalized interpretation that never becomes wooly or precious. Taking a unified approach throughout his reading, Wild is inspired by a personal diary composed of impressions and nostalgia. The overall shading that he gives to the work can be justified by Hahn’s own comment that, "This collection was almost entirely written with tears." Honest in his commitment, Wild seeks a unity in the work that does not allow for much individualization of the pieces; but this is the natural flip side of the bias he has chosen to champion.
Less use of the pedal could have added clarity in a few places. But what is this compared with the subtleties that Wild unveils for us? Thus, in Eros dans les bois, he stratifies the moving tonalities that seem to be playing hide-and-seek in a forest of audacious harmonies spangled with chromaticisms. Le Réveil de Flore appears in the guise of a song in which only the sound of the voice is missing. Wild’s coloring is neither affected nor jocular, but sepia in tone on a background of melancholy revealed by the Frontispiece right from the overture. But does not "bewildered" also signify distraught, frantic and ecstatic? With this interpretation, Earl Wild lays the groundwork that, one hopes, will inspire other pianists to wish to add their contribution.
Equally not to be missed is the Pearl reissue of Hahn’s Concerto for piano, played by Magda Tagliaferro to whom the piece is dedicated.
VILLEMIN
Published in American Record Guide, Vol. 65, N. 2