v Neumann

This recording of Mahler's ninth symphony is rarely included in the "critics' choice" lists of Mahler recordings. I have never seen it listed as a reference recording. I don't know why, because I grasp it as an outstanding, perfectly convincing, hair-raising, superbly played and deeply moving recording of Mahler's masterpiece.

Among the sacred works for voice and orchestra that feature in the present release, only the Requiem has any bearing on the duties that Fauré performed as choirmaster and organist at the Madeleine in Paris between 1877 and 1906. Practically all of the works that he wrote for the Madeleine included an organ accompaniment. Fauré found his duties at the church constricting. Even when he wrote his Requiem, which strikes such a singular note, it was to distance himself from the sort of liturgical music with which he was habitually involved. “As to my Requiem,” he explained in 1902 with reference to his most famous work, “I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different.” We should not forget that Fauré did not believe in God, which perhaps prevented him from blossoming as a church composer. Despite this, the present programme explores an interesting facet of his work.

One of Handel’s more epic Italianate psalm-cantatas, Dixit Dominus (1707) was composed for the name day of the Spanish King Felipe V, and it has a strongly Venetian character in its dispersion of voices and instrumental effects. Highly chromatic and vocally acrobatic, the writing for high sopranos is in bravura style, especially in the wild opening to Dominus a dextris tuis, in which singers extol The Lord for the ubiquity of His wrath.

Georg Philipp Telemann - Perpetuum mobile. Cantatas & Chamber Music
Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble / Dorothee Mields / Benoît Haller / Han Tol
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 350 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Carus # 83.165 | Country/Year: Europe 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

Soprano Dorothee Mields sings like an angel, tenor Benoît Haller’s voice is warm and agile and melodious, the instrumental soloists are all world-class, and their ensemble colleagues are equally informed technically and in sync musically. And the sound is a perfect balance of intimate setting and room resonance that allows the uninhibited natural timbres of voices and instruments to be heard. And to all of this, we add the benefit of some terrific Telemann works that few listeners will have heard–and that even experienced Baroque fans will not immediately recognize as coming from this composer…

Highly recommended. This is one of the very best recordings of this magnificent music. The recorded sound is warm and close up, details are clearly heard. The performance reflects love and respect for the music. The Gewandhaus folks play magnificently and Neumann choses good tempos, not too fast or too slow. The feelings of joyfulness and pride are evident at every turn.

If The Secret is indeed the title of a melody that Gabriel Fauré composed on a poem rather cutesy Armand Silvestre, it does not seem that it inspired the title of the present album entitled "The Secret Fauré", taken rather in a meaning of scarcity and intimacy. Ivor Bolton, at the head of the Basel Symphony Orchestra where he is the artistic director, offers a very subtle choice composed of extracts from stage or stage music: Caligula, Pénélope, Shylock, Pelléas and Mélisande, mixed with some melodies orchestrated by Fauré or more probably by his friends, like Charles Koechlin. Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, the new international queen of bel canto, lends her voice to Fauré's discreet art. Forgotten his many Traviata Berlin, MET or Vienna, for the benefit of a song of a modest limpidity. At his side, the tenor Benjamin Bruns and the women's choir Balthasar Neumann complete this disc which dedicates a certain French spirit seen elsewhere, made of a mixture of carefree, discreet elegance and a je-ne- know what futility.

The present release is the second solo album of the young German guitarist Elise Neumann. She chose to combine two seemingly different composers on this album: J.S. Bach and Mario Castelnuevo-Tedesco. While at first one might have difficulty drawing a connection between the two composers, they are alike in their compositional forms. Like J.S. Bach, Castelnuevo-Tedesco wrote music in the form of the suite, but his musical ideas are completely different. Elise Neumann plays with her acclaimed warm and soulful tone on a rare instrument built by the luthier Daniel Friederich in 1969. On this recording, instrument and player form a perfect team, establishing a most natural, effortless and deeply musical interpretation of these well-known works.