Mozart 'The Weber Sisters'

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the concert-aria and operatic readings themselves are gems, each one thrown off with a splendid combination of technical brilliance, musicianly assurance and tonal sweetness, and impeccably supported... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2016 More…

Release Date: 6th Nov 2015
Catalogue No: 2564601625
Label: Erato
Length: 72 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

20th November 2015
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2015
Gramophone Awards

2016

Winner - Recital

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Mozart: Les petits riens K299b - Overture

Work length3:20

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: "Ah, vous dirai-je maman" / Pantalon und Columbine, K. 446: No. 5, Andante

Work length2:54

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Arnaud de Pasquale (fortepiano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Dans un bois solitaire, K308

Work length3:20

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Arnaud de Pasquale (fortepiano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Musik for the Pantomime Pantalon and Columbine, K. 446: Adagio

Work length1:16

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Alcandro, lo confesso - Non so d'onde viene, K294

Work length9:03

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: "Vorrei spiegarvi, o Dio", K. 418

Work length6:43

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: "Popoli di Tessaglia", K. 316

Work length10:10

Album only

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: "Nehmt meinen Dank, ihr holden Gönner", K. 383

Work length3:25

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Adagio for Two Basset Horns and Bassoon in F Major, K. 410

Work length1:37

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Schon lacht der holde Frühling, KV580

Work length7:35

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (from Die Zauberflöte)

Work length2:41

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Thamos, König in Aegypten, K. 345: No. 5 Entr'acte

Work length3:23

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Act 2, K. 620: March of the Priests

Work length2:56

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: 5 Solfeggios, K. 393: No. 2 in F Major, Adagio

Work length2:53

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano), Arnaud de Pasquale (organ)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

Mozart: Et incarnatus est (from Great Mass in C minor)

Work length11:00

Album only

$1.95

Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Ensemble Pygmalion
Raphaël Pichon

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Recording of the Week, Vocal Recitals from Sabine Devieilhe and Véronique Gens

20th November 2015

Katherine enjoys a double helping of French soprano virtuosity.

Once again, Sabine Devieilhe is telling a love story in music – this time with the help of Mozart. The scintillating French soprano’s debut album on Erato, Le grand théâtre de l’amour, created a fictional narrative with music by Rameau. By contrast, Mozart - The Weber Sisters is rooted in Mozart’s life story and includes music inspired by Aloysia, Konstanze and Josepha Weber, three soprano sisters whom Mozart first met in the German city of Mannheim in 1777, when he was 21. Though he initially fell in love with Aloysia, who went on to become a celebrated diva, it was Konstanze who became his wife; she outlived him by nearly 50 years and did much to sustain and build his reputation after his death.

The programme of Mozart - The Weber Sisters comprises songs, operatic and concert arias and orchestral numbers, and Sabine Devieilhe’s interpretations are typified by beauty of tone, a penetrating sense of drama and a scrupulous respect for the score and the text. Three of the highlights are: the concert aria ‘Popoli di Tessaglia’ – written for Aloysia – which rises to spectacular heights (specifically, the G two-and-a-half octaves above middle C); the sublime ‘Et incarnatus est’ from the C minor Mass – premiered in Salzburg by Konstanze, and ‘Der Hölle Rache’, written for Josepha as the second fireworks-filled aria of the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, a role that has brought triumphs for Sabine Devieilhe at the opera houses of Lyon and Paris. Her colleagues on this album are the Ensemble Pygmalion, the keyboard player Arnaud de Pasquale and the conductor Raphaël Pichon.

Sabine Devieilhe, still in her twenties, has been described as a singer “whose upper register, like her virtuosity, appears limitless, while her verbal sense and dramatic engagement are breathtaking”. In France, she has twice been recognised in the prestigious Victoires de la Musique Classique awards, in 2013 and 2015, and Le grand théâtre de l’amour – praised by Opera magazine as “a wonderfully vivid display of first-class Rameau interpretation” – was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2014.

On the opera stage, her other roles have included Serpetta in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Soeur Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, the Princess, Fire and Nightingale in Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges, and the title role in Delibes’ Lakmé, which she has performed in Montpellier and at the Opéra Comique in Paris, prompting Le Figaro to write: “Her name will immediately go down in history. It is hard to know what to admire most: her technical facility, her vocal agility or her magnetic presence. Of course, it is the combination of all those elements that makes such an impact. Her virtuosity is never an end in itself … her voice is homogenous – devoid of any touch of acid – her vocal line is always musical, and she brings an acute sensitivity to her portrayal.”

Another, quite different role she has sung at the Opéra Comique is Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. That character, created nearly 100 years after Mozart met the Weber sisters, is a Viennese chambermaid with a cheeky sense of humour. Mozart himself was known for enjoying a little scurrilous fun and – at the end of a predominantly serious programme – Sabine Devieilhe and the Ensemble Pygmalion regale the listener with an unlisted ‘hidden track’ that has a distinct twinkle in its eye.

Reviews

February 2016

the concert-aria and operatic readings themselves are gems, each one thrown off with a splendid combination of technical brilliance, musicianly assurance and tonal sweetness, and impeccably supported by the period-instrument band

November 2015

The programme centres around three magnificent showpiece arias for Aloysia, famed both for her expressive cantabile and her coloratura prowess, Among her specialities were sustained pianissimo high notes; and I can't imagine they were more delicately floated than they are by Sabine Devieilhe, a lyric coloratura who combines a pure, sweet timbre and dazzling virtuosity.

20th November 2015

It's a rare singer who can command your attention by opening a disc with what's essentially 'Baa baa black sheep', but Mademoiselle Devieilhe does precisely that...Devieilhe possesses all the apparent virtues of Josepha and Aloysia, both of whom were renowned for their prodigious agility and stratospheric upper registers: she despatches the Queen of the Night's aria with aplomb, even managing an echo effect and a true 'eh' vowel on the top Fs.

26th November 2015

irresistibly good Mozart singing...Expressive and incisive, Devieilhe is in command of everything...Devieilhe’s account of the famously stratospheric Die Hölle Rache is exceptional. Even amid a recent glut of classy Mozart vocal recordings, this stands out.

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Mozart 'The Weber Sisters'

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Recording of the Week, Vocal Recitals from Sabine Devieilhe and Véronique Gens

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