CANTELOUBE: “TRIPTYQUE,” “CHANTS D’AUVERGNE,” VOL. 2. Frederica...

CANTELOUBE: “TRIPTYQUE,” “CHANTS D’AUVERGNE,” VOL. 2. Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano; Royal Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Antonio de Almeida. CBS Masterworks IM-37837 (digital). What distinguishes the songs of the Auvergne collection anthology from its equally stellar competitors is the inclusion of “Triptyque,” a 1914 vocal-orchestral work to poems of Roger Frene. The verse hymns the pleasures of untrammeled nature and the harmonic coloration of the writing, closer to the lushness of Chausson than to the comparative austerity of Debussy, provides an apt setting for Canteloube’s pantheistic sentiments. Both here and in the 13 songs that follow, Stade proves a remarkably persuasive and idiomatic exponent. Her mezzo remains distinctive and pliant, lacking only the variety of attack needed to sustain complete interest for such an anthology. Sympathetic, even luminous, conducting.