Once you accept the fundamental premise -- Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne are gussied-up folk songs -- they become the cutest little things in the world. Of course, not everybody can accept the premise since it involves accepting, first, that the folk song is a legitimate vehicle for high culture, and second, that a little sentimentality never hurt anybody. For listeners for whom Schubert's lieder are the only possible songs, Canteloube's Chants will seem far too close to kitsch for aesthetic comfort. But listeners who can accept the artless beauty of the tunes and the warm orchestral syrup in which they are encased, Canteloube's Chants are just the thing when Puccini's Madame Butterfly becomes too much.
There have been many terrific recordings of Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne over the years, but this recording by soprano
Véronique Gens accompanied by
Jean-Claude Casadesus leading the
Orchestre National de Lille can takes its place among the best. With many impressive recordings of repertoire from Rameau through Mozart to her credit,
Gens may at first seem an unlikely choice for performing gussied-up folk songs, but her darkly lustrous and deep-chested tone, along with her birth in the Auvergne region make, her a natural for the part. And indeed, while one can tell immediately that the singer is
Gens, one never gets the sense that she's condescending to the repertoire, but rather doing exactly the repertoire she wants to do and enjoying herself completely while doing it.
Casadesus is a faithful accompanist, but this is emphatically
Gens' show and, for those who can accept the fundamental premise, pure pleasure. Naxos' sound is rich, deep, warm, and round.