Ravel: Shéhérazade (three poems by Tristan Klingsor)

“In her mid-forties, this voice has become richer and even more expressive, and he works on this disc suit her to perfection. She not only pronounces the words, she feels them...Her Nuits d'ete reilshes hues both light and dark, and if she'd been around to sing Berlioz's Prix de Rome cantata Herminie in 1828, who know, he might have won gold instead of silver!” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“warm, sensitive, the lyrical French soprano par excellence...Gens bring [Herminie] to life as sympathetically as any of her operatic portrayals...It is unusual to encounter a recording of Les nuits d'ete in which the colouring is so consistent throughout...Gens has in her sights a purer kind of poetry.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“[Gens is] alive and vivid, giving a passionate account of the wonderful Sur les Lagunes. Elsewhere, she seems to me in too much of a hurry.” Sunday Times, 9th July 2012

“As you might expect, Gens's singing has sharpened its musical perceptions still further and acquired even more shades of colour since [her] earlier recording. No one today delivers French song with the combination of tonal beauty and verbal nuance she does, and each number of Nuits d'Eté offers a miniature masterclass...Pure ravishment.” The Guardian, 21st June 2012 *****

“her ease and clarity of language are as impressive as her instinctive feel for the modes of expression voiced by such diverse composers as Dvorak, Ravel and Mahler...Kozena encapsulates and conveys the spectrum of moods with a wealth of understanding and apt vocal inflection...There is never any doubt...that Kozena has these songs in her heart and has the wisdom and finesse with which to convey their very essence.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012

“Throughout the Ruckert-Lieder the diction is excellent, dramatic emphases are absolutely in place and there is, notably in 'Um Mitternacht', some superb legato singing...Dvorak's Biblical Songs are almost entirely excellent...Kozena projects the sincerity of these settings magnificently” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“Kozena revels in [Dvorak's] inexhaustible stream of melody, while Simon Rattle’s Berliners relish his subtle orchestration...though Kozena’s French and German are not as idiomatic as her Czech, she is luminous in expressing the exoticism of Tristan Klingsor’s Shéhérazade poems, and Rückert’s celebration of the natural world.” Sunday Times, 23rd September 2012

“Singing in her native Czech, Kozená transmits a soulfulness that she rarely summons in other repertoire. It’s a question of being “inside the idiom”, and it feeds her performance of Dvorák’s Biblical Songs...The disc is worth buying for these 10 tracks alone, but Kozená also captures the exotic idiom of Ravel’s Shéhérazade” Financial Times, 27th October 2012 ****

“Dvorak’s rarely recorded “Biblical Songs” are impassioned prayers and voluptuous Psalm settings that show off Ms. Kozena’s burnished mezzo. The orchestra sounds splendid in Ravel’s “Shéhérazade”; Mahler’s “Rückert Lieder” call forth a more austere and concentrated mode of expression.” New York Times, 23rd November 2012

“Always a strong Francophile, she makes an inspired exploration for the still-developing French tradition...it is easy to hear what inspired [Dutilleux]...Her lower register has become ever-richer toned, yet fluid, while higher up her silken soprano remains undiminished...Fleming is utterly ravishing in Ravel's Sheherazade, and her performance of Messiaen's Poemes pour Mi is sensational.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 *****

“[in the Ravel] she revels in the storytelling...her warm, voluptuous tones soaring ecstatically up into the most hedonistic climaxes, and carrying effortlessly over the orchestra even when in her softest lower-tessitura pianissimo....It’s the Dutilleux cycles that work best of all though, nodding as they do to all of Fleming’s vocal and expressive strengths...the vocal lines themselves playing to the warmth and elasticity of her upper register.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 16th February 2012

“Shéhérazade finds Fleming in seductive voice...Dutilleux provides an appealing series of soundworlds that suits the warm sumptuousness of her voice.” Classical Music, 7th April 2012 ****

“The outstanding item in this French collection is the first recording of Dutilleux's Le temps l'horloge. The short cycle of four songs with interlude was composed with Renee Fleming's voice specifically in mind and she revels in its rapturous lyricism...Fleming's soprano soars and dips, hinting at great truth always just out of reach.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012

“Fleming is at her considerable best in [the Dutilleux], with her voice sounding rich and wonderfully flexible...the Dutilleux makes this an important release that will be an essential purchase for many French music enthusiasts” International Record Review, June 2012

“Given that Fleming celebrated 50 years in 2009...the state of her voice is cause for wonderment. The plush, peachy tone, her trademark, sounds unimpaired by the years...The American soprano justifiably revels in the sound of her own voice. If there have been more Gallic Shéhérazades on disc, none is more beautifully sung.” Sunday Times, 11th March 2012

“Fleming’s immaculate French diction is an asset, and Dutilleux’s luminous orchestral colours gleam under Seiji Ozawa’s direction. No effect is overplayed...Good to see that a major label is still willing to promote high-quality, offbeat repertoire – snap this disc up before it gets deleted.” The Arts Desk, 24th March 2012

“Renée Fleming's latest album reminds us that we pigeonhole her at our peril...Her artistry...can be formidable: she makes Shéhérazade sound faintly indecent; Poèmes pour Mi taxes her a bit, but is suitably ecstatic. But it's in the Dutilleux that we find her at her considerable best. It's worth acquiring just for that.” The Guardian, 8th March 2012 ****

“Fleming claims that singing in French suits her voice naturally, which is clear on this album...Her involvement with the intoxications of Ravel's Shéhérazade is obvious, the journey into this "forest filled with mystery" navigated with an enchantment little short of thrilling. Messiaen's Poèmes Pour Mi proves the perfect partner for Shéhéraza” The Independent, 9th March 2012 ****

“Ravel brilliantly balances raucous humour with heartfelt tenderness, and any production or recording needs to be able to convey both his caricatures and the sublime. This engaging account from Nashville successfully negotiates this balancing act. Julie Boulianne's child has wide-eyed wonder... She can be heard in grown-up, and decidedly seductive mode in the accompanying Shéhérazade.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2009 ****

“An engaging set of French language orchestral songs, the juxtaposition of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and Britten's Les Illuminations being especially rewarding. None of the performances are weak, but all are surpassed elsewhere.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2009 ****

“Bernarda Fink's strong, flexible voice is well matched to all that Ravel asks of her, from the lively snapshots of the Greek folksongs to the long, languorous lines of Shéhérazade.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“Fink attacks [Shéhérazade] with a surprisingly girlish tone, suggesting innocence teetering on the brink of corruption as Ravel's eroticised Orient unfolds before her. The instrumental mixture of glitz and savagery is beautifully illuminated by Kent Nagano and his Berlin-based orchestra, too.” The Guardian, 10th August 2007 ***

“Sumptuous of tone, supremely sensitive, Crespin was born to illuminate the art of French song. Whether floating the seductive allure of Ravel or revelling in the wit of Poulenc these recordings were and remain classics.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 *****

“Ravel's magically sensuous writing finds the ideal interpreter in Regine Crespin...The sheer richness of tone of the singer's tone does not prevent her from bringing out the delicate languor required by an exquisite song like The enchanted flute...This is ravishing...This CD is one of the great glories of recorded music.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“A very beautiful and very enjoyable recital of French orchestral songs, sensitively accompanied. The coupling has this justly adored singer, in excellent form, in further songs by Ravel and Debussy with Soriano as the sympathetic piano accompanist.” Gramophone Magazine