Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne

I'll admit that in 1985 I didn't know whothe New Zealand singer Kiri Te Kanawa was, but that summer I was in Richmond's classical music record store on Three Chopt Road and her recording entitled Come to the Fair: Folk Songs and Ballads was playing. The energy of the songs struck me as being so fresh and beautifully sung that I knew I had to buy it. I probably also liked the "wet look" and red sweater she was wearing, so the $9.00 seemed well spent. I replaced the LP with a CD a decade later and it is still one of my favorite collections of songs.

As I found out more about her and listened to more of her recordings, one kept popping up on the radio and I know why that is: It is simply gorgeous. "Bailèro" is a song sung between a shepherd and a shepherdess, who sing to one another across the mountain pastures. It is the most famous of the roughly 30 French folk songs arranged by Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret in the 1920s. 

Whether it be Véronique Gens, Frederica von Stade, Arlene Auger, Dawn Upshaw, Dame Kiri or María Bayo, I've never heard a version of this song that I didn't like. The pastoral woodwinds echo through the orchestration like pan pipes through the mountains. 

I think one element of these two collections that is particularly appealing after all these years is the fact that they are not "Kunstlieder" (art songs) which can strike me as being too artificial. When I'm in a certain mood, I need real music and not artifice. You know the feeling when you scroll through your playlists looking for the right thing to listen to. I can nearly always listen to these songs. 


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