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Lines Written during a Sleepless Night - The Russian Connection
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Six Songs, Op.38 (1916)
15:28
1.
1
At night in my garden. (Lento)
1:52
2.
2
To Her. Andante - Poco più mosso - Tempo I - Tempo precedente -
2:47
3.
3
Daisies. Lento - Poco più mosso
2:29
4.
4
The Rat Catcher. Non allegro. Scherzando -
2:42
Poco meno mosso - Tempo come prima - Più mosso - Tempo I
5.
5
Dream. Lento - Meno mosso
3:23
6.
6
A-oo. Andante - Tempo più vivo. Appassionato - Tempo precedente -
2:15
JEAN SIBELIUS
7.
Våren flyktar hastigt, Op.13 No.4 (1891)
1:35
(Spring flees hastily) from Sju sånger (Seven Songs)
Vivace - Vivace - Più lento - Vivace - Più lento - Vivace
8.
Säv, säv, susa, Op.36 No.4 (1900?)
2:32
(Reed, reed, whistle) from Sex sånger (Six Songs)
Andantino - Poco con moto - Poco largamente - Molto tranquillo
9.
Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte, Op.37 No.5 (1901)
2:59
The girl came from meeting her lover)
from Fem sånger (Five Songs)
Moderato
10.
Var det en dröm?, Op.37 No.4 (1902)
2:04
(Was it a dream?) from Fem sånger (Five Songs)
Till Fru Ida Ekman
Moderato
EDVARD GRIEG
Seks Sange, Op.48 (1884-88)
14:22
(Sechs Lieder / Six Songs)
for Voice and Piano
Fräulein Ellen Nordgren zugeeignet
11.
1
Gruß (Greeting). Allegro con moto
1:09
12.
2
Dereinst. Gedanke mein (One day, my thoughts). Molto andante
2:43
13.
3
Lauf der Welt (The Way It Goes). Allegretto leggiero
1:38
14.
4
Die verschwiegene Nachtigall (The Discreet Nightingale).
3:34
Allegretto (sempre con mezza voce)
15.
5
Zur Rosenzeit (When the Roses Blossom). Allegretto serioso -
3:00
Poco più mosso - Tempo I
16.
6
Ein Traum (A Dream). Andante - Un poco mosso - Allegro
2:18
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Six Mélodies, Op.65 (1888)
13:05
(Six Songs)
À Madame Désirée Artôt de Padilla
17.
1
Sérénade (Serenade). Allegretto quasi andantino
1:45
18.
2
Déception (Disappointment). Moderato - Più mosso - Tempo I
2:28
19.
3
Sérénade (Serenade). Andante non troppo - Più mosso -
2:12
Tempo I - Più vivo - Tempo I
20.
4
Qu'importe que l'hiver (What does it matter that winter).
2:30
Allegro vivo e molto rubato - Meno mosso - Allegro - Andante -
21.
5
Les Larmes (Tears). Andante doloroso - Più vivo - Tempo I
3:06
22.
6
Rondel (Rondel). Allegretto grazioso
1:04
NIKOLAI MEDTNER
23.
Mailied, Op.6 No.2 (c.1901-05)
1:46
(May Song)
from Neun Goethe-Lieder (Nine Goethe Songs)
Allegretto frescamento - [ ] - Tempo I
24.
Meeresstille, Op.15 No.7 (1905-07)
3:05
(Dead Calm)
from Zwölf Goethe-Lieder (Twelve Goethe Songs)
Andante lugubre
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
The Poet's Echo, Op.76 (1965)
15:37
Six Poems of Pushkin
for High Voice and Piano
For Galya and Slava
25.
1
Echo. Largamente
2:58
26.
II
I thought that the heart had forgotten. Adagio
1:33
27.
III
Angel. Agitato - Tranquillo
2:26
28.
IV
The Nightingale and the Rose. Tranquillo
3:50
29.
V
Epigram. Presto
0:53
30.
VI
Lines Written during a Sleepless Night. Andante - Agitato ed animando - Largamente
3:57
Total time: 72:33
Notes
The soprano Louise Alder has been described as 'the brightest lyric soprano of the younger generation' (The Arts Desk), 'a born actress' (Opera), and as having 'a voice of sparkling beauty' (Gramophone).
In this her debut recording for Chandos, she and her pianist, Joseph Middleton, have devised an unusual but rewarding programme that explores the works of six contrasting composers. As she writes in her booklet note: ‘When Joseph suggested making a CD of Russian songs, including Russian composers who set poems in other languages, I jumped at the challenge. The more we discussed the repertoire, the more amazed I was to see how well it fitted with my own family history. In 1916 (the same year that Rachmaninoff composed the Opus 38 songs), huge political unrest forced my great-grandparents and family to flee, shutting up the house in Odessa, travelling 1,687 km north by rail to St Petersburg, and then by sleigh into Finland, through Norway, and back to Britain. It is my pleasure to be able to honour my family’s Russian connection with this meandering sleigh ride through Russia, with songs in Russian, French, and German, into Finland, in Swedish, and Norway, in German, back to the UK for a cycle of Britten songs in Russian.’
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Reviews
2020 Most Wanted
David Cutler – Fanfare – November/December 2020
Chosen by Times critics as one of the best Classical albums of 2020
The Times & Sunday Times – 10 December 2020
“This is a fascinating, very well sung, difficult program. Both the vocal and piano parts are exceptionally demanding, and both of the performers are well up to the task… This outstanding release is complemented by a significant booklet essay, and texts with good English translations.”
James Harrington – American Record Guide – July/August 2020
“Louise Alder’s recording presence moves into a considerably higher gear with this release … distinctively curated to further tap into her intelligence, remarkable linguistic range and emotionally vibrant instincts …”
David Patrick Stearns – Gramophone magazine – March 2020
Performance **** Recording *****
“… Mesmerising.”
Paul Riley – BBC Music magazine – March 2020
Album of the Week
“… the soprano Louise Alder has devised a fascinating programme … her artistry is such that she deploys a wide-ranging colour, and her linguistic skills embrace Swedish settings by Sibelius, German ones by Grieg and Medtner, and Tchaikovsky’s French songs for Désirée Artôt. With Joseph Middleton her sensitive pianist, Alder is as compelling in poetry of loss and despair as she is in Tchaikovsky’s airy Rondel or Grieg’s carefree Lauf der Welt, her tone always as lovely as her diction is clear.”
Hugh Canning – The Sunday Times (Culture magazine) – 26 January 2020
“… she [Alder] has a beautifully clean, even and shining lyric soprano that projects with crystalline clarity, as well as a warm and attractive stage presence. More than that, she engages emotionally with what she sings, shaping vocal lines with rare sensitivity and a wide range of colours… Inspired by her mother’s ancestral roots in Odessa, Alder and her marvellously resourceful and imaginative pianist, Joseph Middleton, have devised a strikingly original programme that travels through Russia and Scandinavia with songs both familiar and unfamiliar by Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Medtner and Britten…” *****
Rupert Christiansen – The Telegraph – 24 January 2020
Classical Album of the Week
“Here’s a really lovely disc from two of classical song’s brightest artists… Alder is in glorious voice, her soprano fresh and untethered; the assurance of youth and the doubt born of experience come across equally convincingly. Her high notes gleam, and her words are direct and communicative, whether in Russian, Swedish, German or French. Middleton’s playing fills in everything those words can’t say, perfectly calibrated to support Alder but huge in its expressive scope… a disc you will want to play again right away.” *****
Erica Jeal – The Guardian – 24 January 2020
Recording of the Week
“…Alder’s easy facility with the various languages encompassed by the programme was another slightly unexpected delight for me, having heard her mainly in Italian-language roles until now: her incisive German was already a known quantity thanks to a mettlesome Sophie in Glyndebourne’s Der Rosenkavalier a few years ago, but she’s equally responsive and idiomatic in Russian, French and Swedish (listen to her expressive use of consonants to evoke the rustling reeds in Sibelius’s Säv, säv, susa whilst maintaining immaculate legato and you’ll see what I mean)… Alder’s partnered by the superb young song pianist Joseph Middleton, who seems to have a special affinity with light lyric sopranos … There’s certainly plenty for Middleton to get his teeth into here, especially in the Rachmaninov songs, where the intricate filigree of Daisies sparkles with beguiling clarity … He’s also a born story-teller, anticipating shifts in atmosphere before it’s spelled out in the texts when required, and conjuring up whole aviaries of birdsong worthy of Messiaen in Grieg’s and Britten’s depictions of nightingales. Shot through with glimpses of spring around the corner, this imaginatively-programmed and gloriously performed recital is the perfect companion for a long winter’s evening: if it gave me one or two ‘sleepless nights’ of my own, it was only because its many beauties continued to run through my mind well after lights-out.”
Katherine Cooper – Prestomusic.com – 3 January 2020
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Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton recording Lines Written during a Sleepless Night