Sirene, Camilla Hart

The Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling here performs songs by Franz Schubert, accompanied by Paul Rivinius. The disc includes some of Schubert's best-known songs, such as the carefree An Silvia, the serene Litanei, and the first Suleika song. The programme features great changes in emotion: from the portrayals of the joy and despair of young love in Bei dir allein! and Lied des Florio, to the Gothic drama of Der Zwerg and the despondency of Totengräbers Heimweh.

As part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series, lyric soprano Camilla Harris makes her recording debut with a programme which interweaves the themes of love, longing and the female muse. Taking Rachmaninov’s melancholic Six Songs, Op. 38 – inspired by the composer’s duo partner and lover, soprano Nina Koshetz – as the initial catalyst, Camilla performs four settings by Liszt on the poetry of Victor Hugo, each redolent of love and longing and with several allusions to a female muse; she also treats us to two little gems: Chère nuit by the French post-Romantic composer Alfred Bachelet and Grieg’s irresistible ‘Ein Traum’ from Sechs Lieder, Op. 48. In 2022, four exceptional recipients of the Academy’s 2020/21 Bicentenary Scholarships scheme – Julie Park, Camilla Harris, Ossian Huskinson and Charlie Lovell-Jones – will each release a new album to coincide with the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary celebrations.

Transfiguration is acclaimed star soprano Camilla Nylund’s much-awaited first album of arias. This CD portrays the lyric-dramatic soprano with famous arias and scenes from operas by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, including the grueling final scenes from Tristan und Isolde and from Salome. The featured arias reflect the lyrical and dramatic facets of Camilla Nylund’s current roles at such venues as Staatsoper Dresden, Vienna State Opera, and Bayreuther Festspiele. The Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra is led by their chief conductor Hannu Lintu.

With Myrthen, baritone Christian Gerhaher opens Chapter 2 of his life project: a complete recording of the lieder of Robert Schumann. Since Dietrich Fischer-Dieskaus epoch-making recording of the 1970s, no singer has devoted himself more thoroughly to the lied output of Robert Schumann than Christian Gerhaher. Lauded as the greatest lied singer of our time, he launched his complete recording of Schumanns lieder with the album Frage, released in autumn 2018. It marks the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream and, he emphasises, probably the most important project of my life. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung spoke of consummate vocal artistry. Gerhaher has opened a new door in lied interpretation.