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Artist: Benjamin Bernheim
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Benjamin Bernheim:

Douce France, Melodies & Chansons w/C-A Matheson

Over the last year, not only has Benjamin Bernheim given triumphant performances in La rondine, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Werther and Roméo et Juliette, he has also presented acclaimed recitals with his regular duo partner Carrie-Ann Matheson in Munich, Milan and Vienna, and at the Verbier Festival. His programmes included selections from the French repertoire, a rich seam of vocal writing which Bernheim has now mined for Douce France – Mélodies & Chansons. On this, his first solo song album, he explores French Romanticism in works by Berlioz, Chausson and Duparc, before ending with classic chansons by Brel, Kosma and Trenet. 

While studying French song over the years, Bernheim has learned, notably, that the two cycles recorded here, Les nuits d’été and Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, were both originally written (in part or fully) for the tenor and piano, before being orchestrated and becoming associated with the female voice. While not questioning these developments, he was “keen to get back to the mood of extreme intimacy that keyboard accompaniment allows for”. In this respect, his colleague played a key role. “I might not have had the courage to embark on this adventure if I hadn’t had Carrie-Ann Matheson as my partner,” says Bernheim. Not only does Matheson accompany the tenor, she has transcribed the orchestral scores into the idiomatic versions heard on Douce France. 

Bernheim is aware of the potential pitfalls presented by the songs of Berlioz, Chausson and Duparc (represented on the album by four of his 17 mélodies, including Phidylé and Extase). “You have to be careful not to overdo certain effects, at the risk of tipping over into opera, or fall into pedantry by making too much of each word,” he explains. “Above all, a singer must never let the audience hear the balancing act they’re performing or else it will spoil the magic!” He avoids all such dangers, switching between vocal registers with the same elegance and “buttery seamlessness” for which he was recently praised by The New York Times.  

The album ends with music by three 20th-century masters of the chanson. “Here too,” says Bernheim, “you have to find the right centre of gravity – vocal, musical and rhetorical.” And his ability to do just that can be heard in Jacques Brel’s Quand on n’a que l’amour, Joseph Kosma’s Les feuilles mortes (“Autumn leaves”) and Charles Trenet’s Douce France (all arranged by Guy-François Leuenberger).

Bernheim plays Hoffmann in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Salzburg Festival (six performances between 13 and 30 August), a role he reprises at the start of next season at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (24 September-18 October). He will also give recitals featuring repertoire from Douce France in Los Angeles (9 November), Vienna (14 November), Prague (19 November), Paris (24 November) and Monte Carlo (9 February 2025).