Chansons Fran?aises - the fourth CD recording of the NDR Choir under the direction of Philipp Ahmann is dedicated entirely to the colourful palette of French choral music. Paul Hindemith's Six chansons captivate with their brevity and pay tribute to the choral chanson of French music appreciated by Hindemith. The verses set to music by Hindemith for his Six chansons were written by Rainer Maria Rilke in the Swiss canton of Valais, where the southern French composer Darius Milhaud also lived in the summer of 1939. And just as the choirmaster Georges Haenni had asked Hindemith for those chansons, he turned to Milhaud, who also chose Rilke verses for the Quatrains Valaisans (Wallisische Vierzeiler). Besides the Sept chansons by Francis Poulenc from 1936, written on poems by Apollinaire and ?luard, the Trois Chansons de Charles dOrl?ans by Debussy (1908) and the Trois Chansons by Maurice Ravel (1914/15), written at the beginning of the 20th century, also appear on the CD. The two choral pieces, op. 68 - written towards the end of 1882 - represent a special feature of Camille Saint-Sa?ns' complete works, since they open up a depth of expression that is rather denied to the creator of the Carnival of Animals to this day. In probably self-penned verses he describes Les fleurs et les arbres (The Flowers and the Trees) and contrasts the loudly noisy everyday life with the very intimate atmosphere of the Calme des nuits (Silence of the Night). The choir cycle Le Bestiaire by the French-speaking Belgian composer Jean Absil from 1944 moves harmoniously within the tonal boundaries in which Milhaud and Poulenc also composed, but also enriched with sounds from the fields of jazz and light music.
