Joseph Jongen: Fêtes rouges (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. 2) Sarah Defrise & Craig White

• Joseph Jongen (1873 - 1953): Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57:
• 1 Jongen: Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57: No. 1, Épiphanie des exilés 05:26
• 2 Jongen: Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57: No. 2, Le Carnaval des tranchées 05:44
• 3 Jongen: Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57: No. 3, Les Langues de feu 04:51
• 4 Jongen: Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57: No. 4, Release 04:22
• 5 Jongen: Les Fêtes rouges, Op. 57: No. 5, Sur la grève 03:46
• Deux mélodies de Victor Hugo:
• 6 Jongen: Deux mélodies de Victor Hugo: No. 1, L’extase 03:09
• 7 Jongen: Deux mélodies de Victor Hugo: No. 2, J’eus toujours de l’amour 02:13
• Sonnet:
• 8 Jongen: Sonnet 02:11
• Calmes, aux quais déserts, Op. 54:
• 9 Jongen: Calmes, aux quais déserts, Op. 54 04:17
• Deux mélodies, Op. 45:
• 10 Jongen: Deux mélodies, Op. 45: N° 2, Que dans les cieux 03:10
• Barcarolle vénitienne:
• 11 Jongen: Barcarolle vénitienne 02:15
• Guitare:
• 12 Jongen: Guitare 02:27
• Deux mélodies, Op. 45:
• 13 Jongen: Deux mélodies, Op. 45: No. 1, Les Cadrans 03:48
• Pâquerette:
• 14 Jongen: Pâquerette 01:26
• Les Pauvres, Op. 64 No. 3:
• 15 Jongen: Les Pauvres, Op. 64 No. 3 02:55
• Vos yeux:
• 16 Jongen: Vos yeux 02:31
• Chanson. Pieds nus:
• 17 Jongen: Chanson. Pieds nus 02:24
• Chanson. Voici venir l’hirondelle:
• 18 Jongen: Chanson. Voici venir l’hirondelle 02:19
• Malheur à vous:
• 19 Jongen: Malheur à vous 03:14
• 5 Mélodies, Op. 29:
• 20 Jongen: 5 Mélodies, Op. 29: No. 1, Lys-Chrysanthèmes 02:03
• 21 Jongen: 5 Mélodies, Op. 29: No. 2, Villanelle 03:27
• 22 Jongen: 5 Mélodies, Op. 29: No. 3, Tableau gothique 04:10
• 23 Jongen: 5 Mélodies, Op. 29: No. 4, Parfum exotique 03:05
• 24 Jongen: 5 Mélodies, Op. 29: No. 5, Quand ton sourire me surprit 01:59
• 2 Mélodies de Sully Prudhomme:
• 25 Jongen: 2 Mélodies de Sully Prudhomme: No. 1, Les Berceaux 02:20
• 26 Jongen: 2 Mélodies de Sully Prudhomme: No. 2, Ressemblance 02:41
• La Musique, Op. 135:
• 27 Jongen: La Musique, Op. 135 03:31
• Le Soir sur la steppe:
• 28 Jongen: Le Soir sur la steppe 06:13
• Le Souhait de la violette:
• 29 Jongen: Le Souhait de la violette 01:41
• Total Runtime 01:33:38

Info for Joseph Jongen: Fêtes rouges (Intégrale des mélodies, Vol. 2)

Joseph Jongen is universally considered one of the major Belgian composers of the 20th century. The 150th anniversary of his birth, celebrated in 2023, is the occasion for the rediscovery of an oeuvre that remains, for the most part, oddly underrated. Following on Entrevisions (Musique en Wallonie, MEW 1993, 2019), this album of Fetes rouges now concludes the first complete recording of his melodies (art songs) for voice and piano. The melodie genre occupies a special place within the chamber music repertoire. Numerous composers contemporary with Jongen, both male and female, tried their hand at it, but few succeeded in raising it to emblematic status to stand comparison with Faure, Debussy or indeed Ravel. In his letters and notebooks Jongen mentions his vocal works only briefly. But listening to the complete corpus of these works, and the stylistic evolution that becomes evident, reveals the enjoyment and obvious care which Jongen brought to each of these miniatures. Carrying on from Entrevisions, the double album of Fetes rouges offers a musical overview of the composer's various "periods": French romanticism, post-Wagnerism and Debussy-ism, and a Jongenian synthesis. Each album focuses on one of his three great song cycles: opus 25 (Entrevisions, MEW 1993, 2019), here we have opus 29 and opus 57.

Sarah Defrise, soprano
Craig White, piano

Sarah Defrise
is a Belgian soprano. Her music education started at the age of four with the piano. After studying French literature at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), Sarah completed her masters degree (magna cum laude) in Singing at the Brussels Royal Conservatory then joined Daniel Ottevaere's class at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris, where she received her Concertist Diploma in 2016.

At 24 Sarah made her operatic debut at the Royal Opera House of Wallonia as Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola and was reinvited to sing the Fairy in Viardot's Cendrillon, Diana in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, Nannetta in Verdi 's Falstaff and Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème. Her other roles include Cunegonde (Candide, Bernstein), Serpina (La Serva Padrona, Mozart), Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne, Mozart), Frau Silberkland (Der Schauspieldirektor, Mozart), Tonina (Prima la musica e poi le parole, Salieri) and Bacchis (La Belle Hélène, Offenbach). Elected young revelation by the Ghent Festival, she sang with José Van Dam a duet recital in October 2017 with the Flanders Symphonic Orchestra directed by Jan Latham-Koenig. Sarah was awarded the Best Performer 2018 prize at the Armel International Opera Competition for her performance of Calamity by Ben Johnston. Since 2016, Sarah is a PhD student in Music and Musicology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (dir.: David Gullentops) and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (dir.: Jan Michiels).

Craig White
gained a BA in Music at St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 2005. Following a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler, he was also a Fellow in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Conservatory of Music. His Wigmore Hall debut was in October 2010, with oboist James Turnbull. In 2011, he toured Japan with soprano Erika Colon, and conducted London Youth Opera's The Magic Flute. In 2012, Craig won the accompanist prize at the centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, following accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards and AESS Finals. In 2014, he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Craig White has worked as an official accompanist at a number of International Music Academies including the Schiermonnikoog Kamermuziek masterclasses in Holland, Rencontres Musicales Internationales D'Enghien in Belgium and the Lake Ossiach Masterclasses in Austria. In 2017, he adjudicated the Con Brio Piano Competition in Mumbai, India and for the past two years has been Official Accompanist for the Summer Academy Voksenåsen in Oslo, Norway. He has also worked at the Aix-en-Provence Académie, collaborating with artists such as Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Waltraud Meier.

Much in demand as a chamber musician and accompanist for singers and instrumentalists, Craig White spent 2015 living in Germany, working for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He also toured the UK with Russian violinist Adelia Myslov and appeared with Soprano Eleanor Dennis performing Mozart arias for the BBC programme "The Joy of Mozart". In 2018, he performed on BBC Radio 3 in a live soundtrack performance of Daniel Elms’ ‘Bethia’ as part of the Hull New Music Biennial. Craig White also works as an arranger for different combinations of strings and piano.

This album contains no booklet.