Category Archives: CD Review

Fauré music for the stage (mostly)

Posted on by
Reply

This recording from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and their conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud contains 65 minutes of music; mostly written for the stage, though there are some songs for voice and orchestra.

The first set is based on the incidental music that Fauré wrote for an English language production of Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande given in London in 1898.  There’s a four movement suite and a bonus in “Mélisande’s song” from Act III Scene 1 sung here by Tara Erraught.  It’s really tuneful, pleasant music that evokes the piece well.  I particularly liked the third movement  “Sicilienne” which features a wistful harp melody and the song which is sung with beauty and clarity. Continue reading →

Schubert’s Four Seasons

Posted on by
Reply

Schubert’s Four Seasons is a recital disk on the BIS label by soprano Carolyn Sampson and pianist Jioseph Middleton.  It contains a generous 75 minutes of music made up of twenty Schubert songs about the seasons and nature generally (also death… there’s lots of death).  Most of the songs are less well known ones but there are some more frequently heard one likes Die Forelle, Im Frühllind and Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (which also features Michael Collins on clarinet).

Continue reading →

joy & asymmetry

Posted on by
Reply

joy & asymmetry is a new recording from the Helsink Chamber Choir and their conductor Nils Schweckendiek.  It consista of music by Finnish composers Kalevi Aho and Einojuhani Rautavaara, although by no means all the texts are in Finnish.

There’s some interesting music on the recording but a lot of it is relatively stately, layered, polyphony.  That’s not exactly unusual for contemporary choral music and if it’s your thing there’s a lot to like her.  I’ll admit though to finding much of it quite soporific.

Continue reading →

Coups de roulis

Posted on by
Reply

One might be forgiven for thinking that French operetta ended with Offenbach since, outside of France anyway, nothing much gets performed.  However, the tradition continued.  Reynaldo Hahn, for example, produced Ciboulette in 1923.  Another has now come my way.  It’s an audio recording of Andrê Messager’s 1928 work Coups de roulis.

It’s set on a French battleship, the Montesquieu in the Mediterranean.  Christmas leave has been cancelled to allow the visit of the High Commissioner M. Puy-Pradal on a cost saving expedition.  He is accompanied by his daughter Béatrice who is his secretary.  Both the ship’s captain Gerville and a young officer Kermao fall in love with Béatrice. During a party given during a courtesy visit to Egypt Puy-Pradal forms a liaison with the aspiring actress Sola Myrrhis who believes Puy-Pradal’s influence can get her into the Comédie-Française. He accompanies her on her Egyptian tour.

Continue reading →

Greene’s Jephtha

Posted on by
Reply

Fourteen years before Handel’s 1751 work Jephtha Maurice Greene produced a different English language oratorio on the same theme and with the same title.  It’s now been recorded by the Early Opera Company.

Thje story is taken from Judges and concerns the recall of Jephtha from exile to lead the Israelite army against an Ammonite invasion (the people from the East bank of the Jordan not the cephalopods).  Jephtha promises Jehovah that if he is victorious he will sacrifice the first creature “of virgin blood” he meets (shades of Idomeneo) which, of course, turns out to be his daughter.  There’s no divine intervention and no happy ending.

Continue reading →

Farewell to Natalie Dessay

Posted on by
Reply

Few singers over the years have given me as much pleasure as Natalie Dessay.  She and pianist Philippe Cassard have now announced their upcoming retirement from concert performance (Natalie retired from the stage a few years ago) and are about to release an album of their farewell tour material.  It’s called Oiseaux de passage and it’s half an hour or so of bird themed chansons with some English language musical theatre numbers included for good measure.

Continue reading →

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle

Posted on by
Reply

Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is a one act symbolist opera for two singers based on a French folk tale.  It’s scored for a large orchestra and uses quite a lot of dissonance and it’s a famously tough sing for the singer (soprano or mezzo) singing Judit.  It’s been recorded a lot.  Wikipedia lists 32 audio or video recordings, not including this new one from Gabor Brertz, Rinat Shaham and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karina Cavellakis.

Continue reading →