Clairières; but a moment - Album Release

 

Elise Noyes and Gina Hyunmin Lee - Clairières; but a moment

A wonderful listen for any lovers of late-Romantic art song, Clairières; but a moment brings a delightfully new sense of clarity to Lili Boulanger's vocal music. Presented here by Elise Noyes, soprano and Gina Hyunmin Lee, piano, the album pairs Boulanger's 1914 thirteen-song cycle Clairières dans le ciel (Clearings in the Sky) with a newly commissioned companion cycle, If all this is but a moment..., by Monica Pearce.

Boulanger's music, this cycle in particular, has seen more traction in the last few years. It is apparent that Noyes and Lee have spent a lot of time with Boulanger's music, resulting in such a meticulous recording. Especially of note is Lee's expressive and balanced playing, which brings attention to Boulanger's engaging harmonic shifts and colors throughout the cycle.

If all this is but a moment... is a real gem to have added to this album. Pearce has created an almost biographical cycle, with each of the four movements asking the listener to experience a snapshot of Boulanger's life. Pearce has created both the music and the text for this cycle. Her short lines of text and at times corny use of repetition pulls us away from the previous Symbolist work. In this way it feels less poetic than the Boulanger with which it is paired, but closer to resembling short blips of opera scenes.

Pearce's melodies are demanding on the singer, with an intense range required and at times ending on awkward intervals. Noyes does a tremendous job crafting long, luxurious phrases out of the text given to her. Pearce often sets the opening lines of a section quite low in Noyes' range, which impacts the quality of sound. Her diction being stellar for the most part, I wish the consonants in her English were just a little cleaner in the fourth scene of the cycle.

The music for this newly composed cycle is often pretty and cliché, attempting to mimic Boulanger's style. The noticeable weakness in composition is the overall lack of form. The ending of the final song simply stops and is just thrown away. I feel that in terms of an album, it would have been more musically effective to start with Pearce's work as a set up and then moving immediately to the Boulanger.

listen to the album here
© 2026 Brutal New Music Reviews

originally written and published 22 August 2026
please send any and all questions/comments/complaints/suggestions to:
brutalnewmusicreviews@gmail.com

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