Thomas Oliemans – Formidable! (French Chansons) (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

The list of singers from the classical sphere who can put popular songs across well is quite a bit shorter than one might think. Renée Fleming, who had early experience in jazz, can do it, and a few others, but it’s rarely done as well as it is here by baritone Thomas Oliemans, who grew up with the French popular chanson. In one way, he moves away from his classical training; his purring lower register is not that of an operatic baritone but that of a crooner, a distinctly pop phenomenon. Consider his version of Barbara’s L’Île aux mimosas, where he has to hang out at the bottom for most of the song and seems absolutely comfortable there. In another way, though, this is a classical album and not an attempt to crack the pop charts (although it certainly could do so if marketed that way). Relying on a variety of arrangers, Oliemans brings lovely chamber orchestra renditions of these French song classics by the likes of Jacques Brel, Charles Trenet, and Michel Legrand, accompanied by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, sometimes with a quintessentially French accordion. Oliemans is a sensitive text interpreter, and for non-French listeners, who will in many cases know these songs hazily, the album is an excellent way into the genre, although the booklet, despite having notes in four languages, leaves the song texts untranslated. Channel Classics assists with fine sound from the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. – James Manheim

Tracklist:
1-01. Amsterdam Sinfonietta Orchestra – Variations symphoniques (01:45)
1-02. Thomas Oliemans – Sous le ciel de Paris (03:23)
1-03. Thomas Oliemans – Boum! (02:09)
1-04. Thomas Oliemans – La mer (03:48)
1-05. Thomas Oliemans – For me Formidable & Formidable (05:14)
1-06. Amsterdam Sinfonietta Orchestra – String Quartet Op. 10: Andantino (07:24)
1-07. Thomas Oliemans – Les Parapluies de Cherbourg: Je ne pourrai jamais vivre sans toi (05:22)
1-08. Thomas Oliemans – The Thomas Crown Affair: Les moulins de mon coeur (04:12)
1-09. Thomas Oliemans – L’Île aux mimosas (04:23)
1-10. Thomas Oliemans – Dis, quand reviendras-tu? (04:06)
1-11. Thomas Oliemans – Et maintenant (05:05)
1-12. Thomas Oliemans – Mathilde (02:33)
1-13. Thomas Oliemans – Mon enfance (05:15)
1-14. Amsterdam Sinfonietta Orchestra – Pelléas et Mélisande, Op.80: Prélude (05:01)
1-15. Thomas Oliemans – Les prénoms de Paris (03:22)
1-16. Thomas Oliemans – Les feuilles mortes (05:20)