Pierné, Paul

[grewtw]

Paul Pierné was born at Metz in 1874. He gave us many operas, several ballets, two symphonies, a score of tone poems, and much chamber music, together with large-scale religious works including five masses, an oratorio, and several smaller choral and organ works.

He was a cousin of the better-known Gabriel Pierné.

Despite there being nothing in Grove and not a lot in Wikipedia it is possible to find a great deal about him at:

http://www.musimem.com/prix-rome-1900-1909.htm

His productions:

Symphony no. 1 (date not known)

Symphony no. 2 (date not known)

String quartet (1920)

We may hear the quartet as well put together by a gentleman in his bedroom:

http://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_(Piern%C3%A9%2C_Paul)#Recordings

Symphonic poems:

Daphné (1910)

De l’ombre à la lumière (1912)

Cléopâtre

Heures héroïques (1920)

Nuit évocatrice

Rapsodie lorraine

L’Illusion vivante

Masque de Comédie (1930)

Les Sept merveilles…


Operas and operettas:

Le Diable galant (1913)

Enilde (in 4 acts)

Mademoiselle Don Quichotte

Le Rêve de Musette (1932)

Une nuit de Cartouche (1935)

La Belle Namouna (1937)

La Perruche bleue

Les Deux rencontres (1939)

Les Dames galantes de Brantôme (in 3 acts)

Césarine ou La Chanteuse imprévue (1939)

Le Marmiton du vert Galant (1944)

Le Mur mitoyen

La Demoiselle du Luxembourg

Le Ménage de Jacquinet

Le Pâté d’anguille


Ballets:

La Figurinaï (in 3 acts)

La Libellule (1923, staged in 1941)

L’Ondine

Le Pont d’Avignon

Le Bal du rêve


Oratorio:

Jeanne d’Arc à Rouen


Cantata:

Médora (1904)


Five masses, including a Requiem.


That Prix de Rome site is very rewarding as it gives detailed information about (and photographs of) a multitude of otherwise forgotten composers:

André CAPLET
Gabriel DUPONT
Aimé KUNC
ROGER-DUCASSE
Albert BERTELIN
Raoul LAPARRA
Raymond PECH
Victor GALLOIS
Marcel SANUEL-ROUSSEAU
Philippe GAUBERT
Louis DUMAS
Maurice LE BOUCHER
André GAILLARD
Édouard FLAMENT
Jules MAZELIER
Marcel TOURNIER

[gurnemanz]

There are certainly rewarding byways to be trodden. Glancing at that list of Prix de Rome winners, I found that the only one from whom I had a recording was André Caplet, with one song, Forêt, from the cycle, Le vieux coffret, recorded by Pierre Bernac in 1928. According to Graham Johnson in his book on French song:

"Pierre Bernac used to say that Forêt from the Caplet cycle VIEUX COFFRET was his favourite song in all the French repertoire. This is high praise indeed, but it reflected a personal connection between singer and composer. Caplet was among the first to champion the young Bernac's singing, and would have established a recital duo with him if early death had not intervened, the long-term result of war-wounds and gas poisoning in the First World War."

Thanks for the nudge: I was led to investigate Caplet further and have just listened to this disc from mezzo, Dominique Favat, via Spotify. Very pleasant but perhaps not so compelling as to be returned to frequently. While on on the Presto site I noticed that Roderick Williams has include some Caplet on his new disc: Mirages: The Art of French Song.