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Maurice Renaud The Complete Gramophone Recordings 1901-1908At the turn of the 20th century, early recordings reveal some singers still clinging to the past, some looking to the future and some incorporating the best of both traditions. No one better demonstrates this transitional singer than the great French baritone Maurice Renaud whose influence extends well into our century. Not only a consummate actor, Renaud's singing is smooth, the words are articulated clearly, and there is a sense of elegance in every phrase. As Henry Krehbiel of the New York Tribune once wrote, "where Renaud sits, there is the head of the table." This 2 CD set is the first time the complete Gramophone recordings have been assembled on any reissue and also includes Renaud's creator recording from Sigurd. |
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The records of Maurice Renaud have been eagerly sought by collectors over the past fifty years. Yet, a complete discography of this great French baritone has never been published. Using the The Record Collector (1957) discography as a guide, we have compiled a complete listing of Renaud's Gramophone Company recordings. Many of these discs are extremely scarce. Three of the 1906 Paris discs are missing in Robert Bauer's The New Catalogue of Historical Records: 1898-1908, and the two alternate takes from the 1908 sessions are mentioned neither in Bauer, nor in the 1957 discography.
Renaud's first recordings, made in Paris 1901, are the most difficult of all his discs to reproduce. The actual sound of these recordings is splendid with Renaud's voice well in the foreground. I have found that these discs reproduce best with either a 1.5 or 2.0 millimeter elliptical truncated stylus. The problem with these recordings has to do with two different types of speed instability. First, there is a rather fast speed fluctuation that gives the piano a most displeasing fluttering tone. Unfortunately, this "flutter" is endemic to all Paris G&T recordings up through 1904, and it is inconceivable that this problem was not immediately noticed and corrected. Far more serious than this flaw is a random speed variation that occurs throughout each of these nine recordings. Typically, each disc begins at approximately 74 rpm, and almost immediately, the speed of the record takes several sudden nose-dives to about 71 rpm. The speed then increases slightly toward the close of the record so that the ending speed is about 72.5. Although I have not been able to compensate for all fluctuations in speed, I have attempted to keep the music in key by constantly adjusting the speed of my turntable. Although at present we have no way to completely correct these flaws, I have no doubt that in the future, a computer will be able to analyze all speed variations in a recording and make all necessary corrections.
The 1902 London recordings all play at a fairly constant speed with only minor variations. It is interesting to note that one can hear Renaud say "Va?" before the Carmen aria and "Allez va?" before the aria from the La Damnation de Faust.
The recordings from 1906 and 1908 pose no real sonic problems. The rarity of some of the 1906 titles has compelled me to use less than perfect copies, hence the occasional distorted passage or blasting high note. Finally, the constraints of a two disc set have not permitted the inclusion of all seven of Renaud's Pathé recordings. I have, nevertheless, included the rarest and most important of them--his only recording from Reyer's Sigurd. I intend to reissue the remaining Renaud Pathés together with the Pathé cylinders of Jean Lassalle and Léon Melchissédec.