PAUL PAYAN, selected recordings
Marston preferred customer CD
Faithful customers of the Ward Marston business (shouldn’t we be all?) are now offered a CD with operatic and song recordings by the French bass Paul Payan (1878-1959). Luckily the recordings don’t overlap the Cd release by Minerva (except one item) and therefore this extra release was more than welcome as Payan was a remarkable singer, the kind of voice France is now regrettably missing. The transfers –it goes without saying- are stupendous and the singing of Payan of a world gone by. It’s obvious a dark-timbred, voluminous voice combined with an excellent enunciation (no text book needed here) and he constantly displays superb technical command and outstanding musicianship. The old cliché retuns; they don’t make them like that anymore.