Sample Music

Volume I: The Complete Mélodies “Affairs of the Heart” This two-CD set offers the first complete recording of Paul Paray’s songs (only 7 had been recorded previously). Included are the 13 orchestral songs; 3 secular poems for choir and orchestra; 15 songs with piano accompaniment; and 2 religious songs with organ. Ruth Lapeyre, soprano. Eduard Perrone, conductor, pianist. Essay on Paray and complete French and English translations included.

Volume II: The Oratorios World premiere recordings of Paray’s Jeanne d’arc oratorio (with text by Gabriel Montoya), a dramatic retelling of the life of Joan of Arc from the reception of her mission in childhood to liberate France, through her military triumphs, to her imprisonment and death; and the Christmas oratorio Pastorale de Noël (text by Lesablais) that narrates the story of redemption from the cry of humanity for redemption through the coming of the Magi kings. Both works are for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra. Musical analysis with musical notation and complete French and English texts included.

Volume III: Artémis troublée and String Symphony The only recordings made of the enticing ballet score Artémis troublée (Paris, 1922), created for Ida Rubinstein, and the Symphonie d’archets for string orchestra. The accompanying booklet features original art work for the costumes and stage scenery by Léon Bakst and a summary of the plot, as well as a full formal analysis with musical examples of both works.

Volume IV: The Chamber Music (in preparation; due for release April 2004) First recordings of Paul Paray’s once popular Sonata for Violin and piano, the Sonata for Cello and piano, and the String Quartet. Paray’s unique contribution to modern French chamber music has long been unjustly neglected. These performances feature Marian Tanau (violin), Nadine Deleury (cello), Eduard Perrone (piano), and quartet players, Varty Manouelian, (violin), Marian Tanau, (violin), James Van Valkenburg, (viola) and Robert deMaine, (cello).

Volume V: Complete Works For Solo Piano - Fantaisie for piano & orchestra Paul Paray was a prodigious composer in his youth. He was the coveted Prix de Rome prize for composition in 1911. Before and after that time, he wrote many works for solo piano, many of them until now unpublished, although some were published by Jobert, Paris. The Fantaisie is a work of youthful energy and inspiration. After a solo piano introduction, the orchestra and piano engage in a musical collaboration in which two main themes are developed.

Among Paray's very first pieces is a work for piano, Scherzetto, recorded here. This work, along with a song was convincing proof of his talent so as to bring him to Paris to study at the Conservatory.

Paray's piano music is distinctively his own, even though it employs harmonic and melodic styles of his time. They are works of engaging interest for the listener, and of technical challenge to the performer.

Paray's last work was his Second Symphony in 1939, after which time he devoted himself to conducting orchestras around the world.

Paul Paray composed two symphonies, written only five years apart (1935; 1939). The Symphony #1 in C was first performed in Paris under the direction of the composer by the orchestra of the Association des Concerts-Colonne, at a time when Paray had only recently succeeded Gabriel Pierné as conductor of that orchestra. The work is divided into four parts; the first and second movements are played without a break.

The mounting tension in the world as it neared the outbreak of the Second World War may account for the shift from the impetuous optimism of the First Symphony to the pensive sobriety of the Second. The Symphony #2 in A is a full-scale, four movement work in the late Romantic French symphonic tradition. It owes its inspiration to the composer’s personal recollections of his youth and later life in the seaport of Le Tréport whose natural rich sights and sounds of the sea stimulated his creative genius. This Symphony was awarded the first Charles-Martin Loeffler Prize by the Institute of France.

Acis et Galatée tells the mythological story of a love triangle involving a shepherd, a half-goddess and a rival lover cyclops. Paul Paray’s musical treatment of this story was awarded second prize in the 1910 musical competition for the Prix de Rome of the Académie des Beaux Artes, even though the jury, which included Saint-Saëns and Fauré, had voted Paray’s as the best score submitted. Undaunted by this setback, the following year Paray reentered the contest and won the coveted first prize with his Yanitza. This medieval Albanian legend tells of a seditious plan to surrender Albania to Turkish rule. As a result of Paray’s success with Yanitza, the composer spent two years in Rome, enjoying the cultural richness of Italy until the outbreak of the First World War urged him to enlist himself for service to his country.

Both cantatas, for three solo voices and orchestra, are here recorded for the first time. The intriguing and mysterious institution of the famed Prix de Rome contest is given full explanation in the CD booklet which contains several interesting historical photos.