Various: Good Night!
Bertrand ChamayouLPA
- Leoš Janáček Good night !
- Franz Liszt Wiegenlied S.198
- Sergei Lyapunov Berceuse d’une poupée Op.59, No2
- Frédéric Chopin Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op.57
- Sergei Lyapunov Berceuse Op.11 No1
- Heitor Villa-Lobos : A pobersinha
- Mel Bonis la toute petite s’endort
- Edvard Grieg Berceuse
- Bryce Dessner Song for Octave
- Ferrucio Busoni Berceuse
LPB
- Franz Liszt Berceuse S174a/R57a
- Helmut LachenmannWiegenmusik
- Johannes Brahms Wiegenlied Op.49, No4
- Bohuslav Martinu Ukolebavka (Berceuse)
- Mily Balakirev Berceuse in D-Flat Major
- Charles-Valentin Alkan J’étais endormie, mais son cœur veillait…
The sixteen lullabies – or berceuses – that Bertrand Chamayou has chosen for Good Night! form a captivatingly varied album. Embracing music from the Romantic era to the present day, the French pianist has shaped his programme with care and imagination. Miniatures by masters like Chopin, Liszt, Grieg and Brahms (whose archetypal lullaby is heard here in Max Reger’s transcription) sit beside rarer treasures by, among others, Lyapunov, Alkan, Bonis and Lachenmann, and a specially commissioned piece by the contemporary composer Bryce Dessner. It makes a satisfying recital while providing individual items to enrich digital playlists.
“I’ve always loved the lullaby or berceuse as a genre because I’m an insomniac,” explains Bertrand Chamayou, who is also father to two young children. “There is that special moment as you are falling asleep – or not – and there are lots of things going on in your head. You experience all kinds of emotions, from comfort and reassurance to anxiety. The lullaby’s place is halfway between dream and reality.
“The piano repertoire has added lustre to the berceuse’s reputation, starting with Chopin, and I’ve always harboured the idea of dedicating an album to the genre. I think what finally encouraged me to turn that dream into a reality was becoming a father and not being able to find any lullaby playlists on digital platforms that really had something to say.” In addition to the composers already mentioned, this stylistically and culturally diverse album contains lullabies by Balakirev, Busoni, Janáček, Martinů (Chamayou ascribes a nightmarish quality to his ‘Ukolébavka’) and Villa-Lobos.
“I had played some of these pieces,” continues Chamayou, “but some of them were new discoveries I made while putting this project together. Once the concept for this album was clear in my head, I did a lot of research, which revealed some real musical jewels. A huge number of lullabies have been written for the piano, and my initial list was long enough to fill at least three albums! I hope, of course, that all the pieces will interest listeners, but there will be some discoveries – like the piece by Liapunov, the little berceuse that Liszt wrote at the end of his life – a long-standing favourite of mine – and another by the female composer Mel Bonis.”
Introducing the brand new piece on the album, Song for Octave by Bryce Dessner, Chamayou says: “Having made a selection of lullabies from the 19th and 20th centuries, I thought that we really ought to have one from the 21st century, and it seemed obvious to get a piece specially written. As the selection already included a superb atonal lullaby from the 1960s, Helmut Lachenmann’s Wiegenmusik, I thought it would be a good idea to commission a composer whose idiom is more melodic and ‘harmonious’. I immediately thought of Bryce Dessner, who is a friend of mine and who has a young son called Octave.
“I heard Bryce’s superb concerto for two pianos, which was premiered in France by Katia and Marielle Labèque and the Orchestre de Paris in 2018, and it seemed to me that the slow movement of that concerto inhabited the right world for the new lullaby. Bryce’s style is typically post-minimalist, using elements of the repetitive musical style of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, but in a less strict or theoretical way, incorporating the style in a freer musical narrative. His talent shines out, whether in his ‘classical’ compositions, his film music or his work with his rock band, The National. He is unique in both his personality and in what he does and I am very happy to have this world premiere on the album.”
When conceiving Good Night! Chamayou was at pains to create an album that would make sense as a whole. “My only worry at the start of this project was that a whole album of lullabies would be too uniform in tone. Even if each piece could be listened to separately – especially with the way streamed music works – it was still important for me to think of this as an album, to tell a story by putting the pieces in a defined order. I wanted the pieces to express subtly different feelings, and as I researched the repertoire I was reassured by the variety of pieces on offer … Each composer expresses something genuinely different in each of these lullabies, but there is also a universal resonance in each emotion the pieces evoke. It really does all correspond to the different states we experience as we drift between consciousness and unconsciousness. Damien Quintard, the sound engineer for this recording, told me at the end of the sessions that he didn’t think he’d ever recorded such a varied album!”
Good Night! was recorded using Dolby Atmos technology, which produces ‘three-dimensional’ immersive sound when played through compatible speakers. “You feel as if you are being enveloped by sound,” says Chamayou, who also explains that the ambience was subtly varied for each piece on the album, reflecting its particular realm of senses and emotions.