This release showed up on classical best-seller charts in the late summer of 2023, perhaps because it represented a genuinely original experiment. Mezzo-soprano
Stephanie d'Oustrac
, the small ensemble
Le Poeme Harmonique
, and conductor and theorbist suggest... well, what, exactly? That there is an affinity between French popular song and French and Italian music of the 17th century? Not quite, although there were intriguing connections between popular song, outlined in the booklet, and the very earliest stages of the historical performance movement at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The program is organized into three sections, "Jeunesse," "Les vieux airs," and "Les amours passees," but the 20th century songs and the 17th century pieces mostly don't overlap within these groups; "Les amours passees" are all popular songs. The program makes quite a lurch between an excerpt from
Cavalli
's
L'Egisto
and
Paul Marinier
D'elle a lui
, and the lurch would have been even greater if the popular songs hadn't been chosen to exclude any hints of African-American-influenced song.
Leon Fossey
Les canards tyroliens
, a kind of yodeling song about ducks, simply doesn't inhabit the same universe as
Monteverdi
Lamento d'Arianna
. Perhaps it would be best to say, as the publicity does, that there are "echoes" between the two traditions, and
d'Oustrac
plainly has enthusiasm for both repertories; her personality is largely enough to carry the listener through. There is definitely a need for programming and performance that mixes classical and popular material, which have never been as far apart as they have been made out to be. This release may not be a definitive solution, but it is an intriguing and listenable attempt. ~ James Manheim