Henri Duparc
Henri Duparc left a handful of late-Romantic mélodies that still define the French art song: long-breathed lines, restless piano writing and an almost unbearable concentration of longing set to Baudelaire, Gautier and Goethe.
What survives is pure intensity. L’invitation au voyage rises and falls like light on water, its presque lent tempo and sudden octave drops painting Baudelaire’s dream-Holland with exquisite restraint. Elégie carries the same charged stillness into darker territory. Duparc’s only solo piano piece surfaces among night music, a rare glimpse of the same refined harmonic world without the voice. The songs demand flawless legato, dynamic control and a pianist who can match their restless undercurrents; when those conditions are met they remain among the most atmospheric and complete realisations of French mélodie.
Compositions by Henri Duparc appear on
Lest We Forget: A Manifest of Struggle and Hope
Welcome to the world’s first “classical” protest CD. The music ranges widely across Germany, France, England, Austria, Poland, Chile, the USA and Australia, touching world wars, the Holocaust, dictatorships and the stolen generation. It is a no-holds-barred plea for humanity to recover humanitarian values before it is too late.