Your selections total more than the whole disc price.
Notes
Alpha continues its collaboration with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and its Academy, which will celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2018. We invite you to discover artists of great talent who take us on a trip to Auvergne, Sicily, Armenia and Azerbaijan thanks to Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, to Andalusia with Falla’s Psyché on a poem of Georges-Jean Aubry, and to the world of Jules Renard with Ravel’s Histoires naturelles. The last-named are recorded in a version for chamber ensemble: ‘Since Ravel gave Manuel Rosenthal to make an arrangement for large orchestra which we found rather overblown, we set out to find a “chasseur d’images” (to quote the title of one of Renard’s Histoires naturelles poems) who could transcribe the work without losing its intimate, delicate aspect... We hope you will be as charmed as we are by Arthur Lavandier’s work, which beautifully conveys the immensely refined timbres and nuances of Ravel’, says the oboist Clément Noël, a member of the Swiss Ensemble Labyrinth.
Anna Stéphany is a true revelation, performing this programme with the technique, the sensuality and the emotional impact that earned her a huge triumph in Mozart at last summer’s Glyndebourne Festival.
Please login to post a review
Reviews
Vocal Recital Category Nominee
ICMA Award Nominations 2019
***** (Exceptional Album)
Stefano Pagliantini - Musica magazine (Italy) – June 2018
Performance **** Recording ****
"Black is only one of the myriad colours on this inventive and absorbing collection... Stéphany is utterly entrancing, savouring each syllable so that their characterisation of each song builds wonderfully from the text. The Labyrinth Ensemble proves an ideal partner throughout with its wide range of timbres and natural pacing, the interlude of Ravel's Introduction et Allegro being among the finest on disc."
Christopher Dingle - BBC Music magazine - May 2018
"Ravel’s great chamber piece for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, Introduction et Allegro, is at the centre of this brilliantly planned recital. Folk Songs (1964) is one of Berio’s most accessible works, but can rarely have been as lushly and characterfully performed as here. Stéphany is an excellent linguist: Ravel’s Histoires Naturelles, in an arrangement by Arthur Lavandier, have the dry wit and sensuality of a Crespin devotee, and Falla’s Pysché is sumptuous."
Hugh Canning – The Sunday Times (Cultural magazine) – 11 March 2018
Classical Album of the Week
"... Stéphany's mezzo-soprano radiates warmth and substance, and Labyrinth bring lean and focused energy to a programme that begins with Luciano Berio's Folk Songs..." ****
Erica Jeal - The Guardian - 2 February 2018
Media Downloads
Whenever possible we provide a high resolution CD cover image and a PDF version of the CD booklet for you to download and keep. These are found in your history if purchased and once you have logged in.
My Wish List
