Stamina Was Remarkable – La Belle France “Stamina was remarkable” Eric Tallett – Burnley Express 17th November St. Peter’s Parish Church, Burnley, was the venue for yet another unusual musical event, this time on a Saturday evening; it took the form of a multimedia presentation titled “La Belle France“, in which three artists, singers, accompanists and photographers collaborated to convey the taste of this nearest European neighbor of ours with a blend of classical songs and photographic images.
I don’t think we have seen the likes of it since the days of the “Cercle Français” which was thrived in the borough some decades ago. Our local mezzo-soprano Helena Kean was the singer, she was most ably complemented at the piano by Graham Jackson, a freelance musician from Preston, while the visual images, which formed the filling of this sandwich, came as slides taken when Helena and her mother Brenda Kean visited France this year. https://www.transaction-2007.com/
The composer chosen to set us off on our tour of the French song repertoire was Henri Duparc; his “L’Invitation au Voyage” was one of only 33 songs upon which his entire reputation rests, he gave up composition at 36. But it was soon evident why he is nevertheless ranked very highly. Miss Kean and Mr. Jackson melted together creamily and established the flavor of the genre of which we were to have the most generous helping. https://www.transaction-2007.com/
Gabriel Faure was next, his “Le Jardin Clos” sets eight texts by the Belgian poet Van Leberghe, all have a mystical feel and the music binds them together. The range and variety of the voice was amazing. Next came three exquisite songs set by udelaude Debussy, Trois Chansons de Bilitis “, to words by Pierre Louỹs.
Debussy’s rich harmonies perfectly match the mezzo voice. The dictionaries were perfect but the excellent it was time for the first tranche of pictures They were all taken in Monet’s garden at Givermy in Normandy, some slides were of the garden as it now is, others were photographs of Monet’s paintings of it in his time, an absolutely fascinating comparison.
It was nothing short of a miracle that in all the pictures there was not a single tourist to be seen, they came by the thousand, day in day out, when we returned after our refreshment it was convenient to have the rest of the slides and these featured the magnificent Palace of Versailles and other treasures of pre-revolution France The center was the megalomaniac “Sun King” Louis XIV and his 65 years of unbridled spending. d from the pulpit by Mrs. Kean. The quality of the pictures was breathtaking. The greater part of the presentation was not yet to come with