Chœur du Concert Spirituel – Reynaldo Hahn: L’île du rêve (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

To have written that, you must be a poet, Massenet told Reynaldo Hahn when he read through the score of L’Île du rêve. Composed when the young man was not yet eighteen years old, this ‘curtain-raiser’ already had the qualities of the great works of the period. It reveals the coloristic talents of Bizet, the passionate outbursts of Massenet and even the prosodic originality of the young Debussy.

The plot recounts a French naval officer’s love affair with a young Polynesian girl he has to abandon. This subject – also treated musically by Puccini (Madama Butterfly) and Delibes (Lakmé – is approached in an almost Symbolist style: the Romanticism of the music contrasts with a contemplative, introspective treatment of the narration. This is where the youthful Hahn particularly shines: in the very first bars (the hymn to Bora-Bora), in the various love scenes for Loti and Mahenu (notably the duet “Restons encore les paupieres mi-closes”) and even in the neo-Handelian prelude to Act Two. – Bru Zane

Tracklist:
1. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – I. Scène. Ô pays de Bora-Bora (03:31)
2. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – II. Scène. Quel est ce bruit ? Alerte ! (00:30)
3. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – III. Scène. Ô belle enfant, vers qui montent mes plaintes (01:31)
4. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – IV. Scène. Amis, voilà le salon de l’île du rêve (02:52)
5. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – V. Scène. Que ton chagrin soit bercé par nos chants ! (03:27)
6. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – VI. Duo. Enfant, demeure (04:39)
7. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – VII. Restons encor, les paupières mi-closes (03:32)
8. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – I. Prélude (03:31)
9. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – II. Scène. Or, Adam que venait de bercer un long rêve (05:43)
10. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – CL’île du rêve, Acte 2: III. Scène. Trêve de paroles ! (01:40)
11. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – IV. Scène. Cherche à qui cet homme ressemble (04:02)
12. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – V. Duo. Jalouse !… (04:04)
13. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – I. Prélude et Choeur. Tihi ‘ura teie (03:31)
14. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – II. Scène. Hélas ! Nous te quittons demain (02:08)
15. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – III. Scène. J’ai tressé pour ma couronne (01:39)
16. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – IV. Arioso. Ne plus te voir, ô ma petite case (01:47)
17. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – V. Scène. La princesse ! (01:38)
18. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – VI. Duo. C’est moi, chère petite (05:24)
19. Münchner Rundfunkorchester – VII. Scène. Non, Mahénu… (05:17)