Les Poets (Apollinaire) (Import) (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  European Music  »  French
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: August 15, 1996
• Label: Universal Records (France)
• UPC: 042284717021
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106667650
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #245369 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #5966 in European Music (See Top 100 European Music Bestsellers)
• #1773 in French (See Top 100 French Bestsellers)

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First released in 1964, this LP is the third and final volume in singer/songwriter L‚o Ferr‚'s series of tributes to French symbolist poets. After Baudelaire and Apollinaire, he turns to the damned pair of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. The latter's brief but blinding career and his love affair with the former, his mentor, remain among the most tormented -- and freely interpretable -- pages in 19th century French literature. But Ferr‚ is more interested in the musicality of their verses than the modernity in some of Rimbaud's poems or the tension between debauchery and Christian mysticism in Verlaine's. His choice of poems jumps over Rimbaud's most arcane poetry ("Une Saison en Enfer," the famous "Vowels") to focus on his more mundane works ("Le Buffet," "Chanson de la Plus Haute Tour"). As for Verlaine, he goes with the classics, opening with "�coutez la Chanson Bien Douce" (Listen to the Sweet Song), almost obligatory under these circumstances -- and not forgetting "Art Po‚tique" (beginning with the verse "Music before anything else..."). His musical approach is that of a typical French chansonnier: polished melodies backed by a music hall piano and string ensemble -- think Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Charles Tr‚net. Jean-Michel Defaye's arrangements and musical direction lack some risk-taking, leading to potentially powerful poems being transformed into lamentable ballads -- the cynicism and plain sexual abuse of "Mes Petites Amoureuses" fizzles out; "Ma BohŠme" is given too much of a pastoral treatment. Good ideas include a highly dramatic "Les PoŠtes de Sept Ans" (a wink at Brel's vocal delivery?) and the luscious jazz of "Pensionnaires" (two teen lesbians, almost graphic). This album presents Ferr‚ the stylist and melodist, not the celebrated anarchic poet. CD reissues have not improved the sound quality. ~ Fran‡ois Couture

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