L’heure exquise, with Beth Anne Hatton, Hayden DeWitt, Vita Wallace

Beth Anne Hatton, soprano
Hayden DeWitt, mezzo soprano
Vita Wallace, piano

A program of French songs and duets arising from solitude and bleak circumstances to find "a vast and tender consolation" in the presence of nature, whether moonlit snow or the soft sound of rain. Poet Paul Verlaine is the inspiration for composers Chausson, Debussy, Hahn, Massenet and a few less well-known, including Poldowski, a wonderful Belgian-born British composer/pianist (daughter of Polish composer/violinist Henryk Wieniawski).

PROGRAM
L’heure exquise (HDW) — Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947)
En sourdine (HDW) — Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Au bord de l’eau — Émile Paladilhe (1844–1926)
Oh! ne finis jamais nuit clémente, nuit divine — Jules Massenet (1842–1912)

Isolation: Songs of Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) (BAH)

Apaisement — Ernest Chausson (1855–99)
D’une prison — Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947)
Le son du cor — Charles Bordes (1863–1909)
Effet de neige — Poldowski (1879–1932)
Il pleure — Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
L’heure exquise — Poldowski

Serenade (HDW) — Charles Gounod (1818–93)
Extase (HDW) — Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Puisqu’ici-bas tout âme — Fauré
Rêvons, c’est l’heure — Massenet

Live from St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University.