Netanya Davrath’s Songs of the Auvergne has stood as the reference recording in this music since the mid-1960s when it was first issued, and while challenged by the likes of Victoria de los Angeles, Frederica von Stade, and Kiri Te Kanawa, it remains without peer. Davrath was one of those unclassifiable singers (Nati Mistral was another) whose voice belonged in the sort of stylized folk music so beloved of composers working in the Romantic Nationalist style. Her boyish timbre–plaintive and penetrating but never harsh–was further tempered by extraordinary care with diction and unusually accurate pitch sensitivity–truly a case of “the art that conceals art”.
And so hearing her wrap her tongue around the quicker songs such as “L’aio de rotso” is a joy whether or not you understand the words (now removed to Vanguard’s website: www.vanguardclassics.com) or even care about them at all, while the affecting simplicity of her “Bailero” never–as it does with Te Kanawa–comes to sound like a Prima Donna tripping languidly on acid.
This set also has an enticing coupling in the form of the New Songs of the Auvergne, orchestrations of additional Canteloube voice-and-piano settings that never made it into the official sequence. The pick-up orchestra under Pierre de la Roche shares the same virtues as Davrath: its tone is earthy and honest in a way that singularly suits the material, and the fine recorded sound has hardly dated. One problem: the track listing on the back of the jewel case is barely legible against the dark background. But the bottom line here is simple: this is the best available, and it’s less expensive than ever. [9/13/2003]
