Passionate Impressions--Hahn: Le Rossignol Éperdu

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Frontispice (Frontispiece)

2. Andromède résignée (Andromeda resigned to her fate)

3. Douloureuse Rêverie dans un bois de sapins (pained musings in a pine wood)

4. Le Bouquet de Pensées (cluster of thoughts)

5. Soleil d’automne (Autumn Sun)

6. Gretchen

7. Les Deux Écharpes (the two scarves)

8. Liebe! Liebe! (love! love!)

9. Eros caché dans les bois (Eros hidden in the woods)

10. La Fausse Indifférence (feigned indifference)

See all 30 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2

1. En Caïque (in a caïque/longboat)

2. Narghilé (The Hookah, waterpipe)

3. Les Chiens de Galata (the dogs of Galata)

4. Rêverie nocturne sur le Bosphore (Nocturnal musings on the Bosphorus)

5. La Rose de Blida (the rose at Blida)

6. L’Oasis (the oasis)

7. L’Ange Verrier (the Glass Angel)

8. Le Jardin de Pétrarque (the garden of Petrarch)

9. La Nativité (the Nativity crib in Nuremberg)

10. Faunesse dansante (dancing faun)

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Reynaldo Hahn led a colorful life as boulevardier, friend of Proust, music critic, pianist, singer, conductor, and composer. He's best remembered for his many songs and for his operetta, Ciboulette, which has retained its popularity among his 17 stage works. His piano music hasn't fared as well, so it's good to have Le Rossignol Éperdu, a collection of 53 miniatures (only a handful over three minutes) available in sympathetic performances recorded at age 86 by the master of the Romantic piano, Earl Wild. Wild is known for his virtuosity and poetry, and these salon pieces stress the latter quality in his playing. He captures the simple, unaffected charm of the works, sometimes sounding as if he's improvising on the keyboard--an important reason why he's such a successful interpreter. Wild also succeeds in creating the intimate atmosphere they require, as well as the classic simplicity that links them to the French piano tradition. No one will want to listen to all 53 in one sitting, but taken in chunks of five or six, they make a pleasant appetizer to heavier fare. Warm sound and playing complete the picture. --Dan Davis

From International Record Review - subscribe now
As Alastair Londonderry writes in the booklet accompanying this set, the title Le rossignol éperdu is 'a bit of a teaser'. Eperdu can mean distraught, bewildered, frantic or even ecstatic: 'perhaps this nightingale is all of these things'. The set, recorded here in its entirety for the first time, comprises 53 pieces, divided into four groups. Hahn worked on the sequence between 1899 and 1910, although it seems unlikely that he originally envisaged it as such a long work.Although he was... read more

Album Description
French composer Reynaldo Hahn wrote very few solo piano compositions. This world première two disc recording performed here by the GRAMMY® Award - winning pianist Earl Wild, includes the very rare cycle of 53 solo piano compositions entitled, Le Rossignol Éperdu (The Bewildered Nightingale). Recorded here in its entirety for the first time, these fifty-three delightful poèmes for piano were composed between 1899 and 1911. Each of these pieces are inspired by great poets; Verlaine, Molière, Flaubert, Voltaire, Baudelaire, Goethe, Musset and Hugo. The Le Rossignol Éperdu consists of four individual suites; I. Premiere, II. Orient, III. Carnet de Voyage and IV. Versailles. This extraordinary group of miniatures reflects varying impressions, sketches and thoughts during Reynaldo Hahn's countless travels. The music is played with passionate Belle Époque elegance by the Romantic Master himself, Earl Wild. The informative liner notes by Lord Londonderry are written in b! oth English and French.

Passionate Impressions--Hahn: Le Rossignol Éperdu

Tracks:

Frontispice (Frontispiece)
Androm rgn(Andromeda resigned to her fate)
Douloureuse Rrie dans un bois de sapins (pained musings in a pine wood)
Le Bouquet de Pens (cluster of thoughts)
Soleil dautomne (Autumn Sun)
Gretchen
Les Deux harpes (the two scarves)
Liebe! Liebe! (love! love!)
Eros cachans les bois (Eros hidden in the woods)
La Fausse Indiffnce (feigned indifference)
Chanson de Midi (Song of midday)
Antiochus
Never more
Portrait
LEnfant au Perroquet (The child with a parrot)
Les Rries du Prince lantine (The musings of Prince Eglantine)
Ivresse (Intoxication)
LArome supr (sublime aroma)
Berceuse fce (impatient cradle song)
Passante (Passer-by)
La Danse de lAmour et de lEnnui (Dance of love and boredom)
Ouranos (Uranus)
Les Hotropes du Clos-Andr
Effet de nuit sur la Seine (Night impressions on the Seine)
Per i piccoli canali (along the little canals)
Mirage
La Danse de lAmour et du Danger (the dance of love and danger)
Matinparisienne (Morning in Paris)
Chbin tragique (Tragic Cherub)
Les Chs enlac(the entwined oaks)

Tracks:

En Cae (in a cae/longboat)
NarghilThe Hookah, waterpipe)
Les Chiens de Galata (the dogs of Galata)
Rrie nocturne sur le Bosphore (Nocturnal musings on the Bosphorus)
La Rose de Blida (the rose at Blida)
LOasis (the oasis)
LAnge Verrier (the Glass Angel)
Le Jardin de Parque (the garden of Petrarch)
La Nativitthe Nativity crib in Nuremberg)
Faunesse dansante (dancing faun)
Les Noces du Duc de Joyeuse (The Marriage of the Duke of Joyeuse)
Le Petit Mail (the little promenade)
Les Pages dElisabeth (the pages of Elizabeth)
La Jeunesse et lrnent de fleurs le tombeau de Pergol(Youth and summer adorn with flowers the tomb of Pergolesi)
Vieux Bahuts (Old Furniture)
Hommage a Martius (Homage to Martial)
La Reine au jardin (The Queen in her garden)
Le Ril de Flore (The awakening of Spring)
Le Banc songeur (bench dreamer)
La F de Terpsichore (The Feast of Terpsichore)
Adieux au soir tombant (Farewell to the fading evening)
Hivernale (Winter ascent)
Le Prinage inutile (The futile pilgrimage)

Amazon.com

Reynaldo Hahn led a colorful life as boulevardier, friend of Proust, music critic, pianist, singer, conductor, and composer. He's best remembered for his many songs and for his operetta, Ciboulette, which has retained its popularity among his 17 stage works. His piano music hasn't fared as well, so it's good to have Le Rossignol Éperdu, a collection of 53 miniatures (only a handful over three minutes) available in sympathetic performances recorded at age 86 by the master of the Romantic piano, Earl Wild. Wild is known for his virtuosity and poetry, and these salon pieces stress the latter quality in his playing. He captures the simple, unaffected charm of the works, sometimes sounding as if he's improvising on the keyboard--an important reason why he's such a successful interpreter. Wild also succeeds in creating the intimate atmosphere they require, as well as the classic simplicity that links them to the French piano tradition. No one will want to listen to all 53 in one sitting, but taken in chunks of five or six, they make a pleasant appetizer to heavier fare. Warm sound and playing complete the picture. --Dan Davis

Album Description

French composer Reynaldo Hahn wrote very few solo piano compositions. This world première two disc recording performed here by the GRAMMY® Award - winning pianist Earl Wild, includes the very rare cycle of 53 solo piano compositions entitled, Le Rossignol Éperdu (The Bewildered Nightingale). Recorded here in its entirety for the first time, these fifty-three delightful poèmes for piano were composed between 1899 and 1911. Each of these pieces are inspired by great poets; Verlaine, Molière, Flaubert, Voltaire, Baudelaire, Goethe, Musset and Hugo. The Le Rossignol Éperdu consists of four individual suites; I. Premiere, II. Orient, III. Carnet de Voyage and IV. Versailles. This extraordinary group of miniatures reflects varying impressions, sketches and thoughts during Reynaldo Hahn's countless travels. The music is played with passionate Belle Époque elegance by the Romantic Master himself, Earl Wild. The informative liner notes by Lord Londonderry are written in b! oth English and French.

Customer Reviews:

Finally !.......2005-12-13

Rather than repeat word-by-word the wonderful words of Mr Morrison, I will merely exclaim--YES! I have been waiting for a complete recording of this collection for decades, and never expected that its disk début would be left to the magical hands of none other than Earl Wilde (b. 1915, Pittsburgh.) A connoisseur's delight, all around, and in gorgeous recorded sound.

Charm and Melancholy.......2003-07-07

Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947) is little known today. When he is remembered it is primarily for two songs, 'L'heure exquise,' and 'Si mes vers avaient des ailes,' two of the most beautiful French songs in the repertoire. In his day, though, he was a musical Parisian man about town. He had come to Paris from his native Venezuela as a toddler and never left. He studied composition at the Conservatoire with Jules Massenet. He conducted at the Opéra Comique, wrote operettas, the most remembered of which is 'Ciboulette,' and many songs. He wrote a sparkling piano concerto for which he was the piano soloist at the première. He had a good baritone voice and sang his songs, always with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, at many élite private gatherings. He met Proust in his teens, they were lovers for a time, remained friends for life, and he is generally considered to be the model for Jean Santeuil in Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' ('À la recherche du temps perdu').

This 2-CD collection of 53 piano miniatures was written between 1898 and 1911 and published by Heugel & Cie. in 1912. In the evocative title, 'Le Rossignol éperdu,' the 'rossignol' ('nightingale') is undoubtedly the composer; the adjective 'éperdu' may mean, variously, 'bewildered,''ecstatic,' or 'distraught', and perhaps in this case all of these. The pieces, some of them only a page long, are rather arbitrarily collected into four suites: I. Première Suite, II. Orient, III. Carnet de voyage (Travel Diary), and IV. Versailles. Most of the pieces have a poetic epigraph from writers such as Verlaine, Musset, Goethe, Mme. de Sevigné, Molière.

Hahn was a conservative composer whose musical language rarely went beyond that of, say, Fauré. Everything he wrote is meticulously crafted. The tone of these pieces is a gently nostalgic melancholy. In the only written comment he ever made about these pieces he said he had written them with 'suppressed tears.'

The whole set has never been recorded before as far as I know. It is astounding, actually, that at age 86 Earl Wild would undertake this project. One gathers that he had to learn most of them for the first time. He brings his usual grace and musicality to the pieces. His limpid playing brings out the occasional unusual harmonic twists. His legendary legato is at the service of the songful lines of Hahn's lapidary 'poèmes.'

I would pick for particular attention the sweetly mysterious 'Mirage,' the slowly accelerating stirring of 'Le Reveil de Flore' ('The Awakening of Spring'), the gentle fanfares of 'Le Jardin de Pétrarque,' the sensuality of 'Ivresse' ('Ecstasy'), the gently rocking 'En Caïque' ('In a Boat'). I suppose a point of comparison would be the miniatures of Federico Mompou or even of Erik Satie. But Hahn had his own voice.

Hahn is probably not a great composer. He knew what he could do, though, and he did it very well. His miniatures, each lapidary, are to be treasured one by one. (Indeed, I would strongly urge you to listen to only a few at a time.) We are indebted to Earl Wild for making this recording. It is unlikely to be bettered.

Review by Scott Morrison

This disc has been nominated for a 2002 GRAMMY award.......2003-01-26

The legendary 87-year-old Grammy Award-winning dean of pianists has given us a world-premiere recording. This is a very rare collection of 53 solo piano compositions by the French composer Reynaldo Hahn. This extraordinary group of miniatures reflects varying impressions, sketches and thoughts during Hahn's countless travels. Passionate Impressionism.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Halo of Ice

Musica de Ernesto Lecuona

Life Is a Carnival

Flight Path [Original recording remastered] [Import]

La Fille Qui Chante [Import]

Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression/Phase II

Love Affair/Somewhere My Love [Import]

Homenaje Pa'L Bailador

Juan Acuna y el Terror del Norte

Jack Boyz in the House

Blue Note Plays the Beatles

1. Frontispice (Frontispiece)
2. Andromède résignée (Andromeda resigned to her fate)
3. Douloureuse Rêverie dans un bois de sapins (pained musings in a pine wood)
4. Le Bouquet de Pensées (cluster of thoughts)
5. Soleil d’automne (Autumn Sun)
6. Gretchen
7. Les Deux Écharpes (the two scarves)
8. Liebe! Liebe! (love! love!)
9. Eros caché dans les bois (Eros hidden in the woods)
10. La Fausse Indifférence (feigned indifference)

1. En Caïque (in a caïque/longboat)
2. Narghilé (The Hookah, waterpipe)
3. Les Chiens de Galata (the dogs of Galata)
4. Rêverie nocturne sur le Bosphore (Nocturnal musings on the Bosphorus)
5. La Rose de Blida (the rose at Blida)
6. L’Oasis (the oasis)
7. L’Ange Verrier (the Glass Angel)
8. Le Jardin de Pétrarque (the garden of Petrarch)
9. La Nativité (the Nativity crib in Nuremberg)
10. Faunesse dansante (dancing faun)