Fauré: Les roses d'Ispahan Op. 39 No. 4

Chen Reiss’s debut album 'Liaisons' was internationally acclaimed for both the repertoire selection and the sheer brilliance of the musicianship displayed by Reiss.

Gramophone magazine called her performances of arias by Haydn, Mozart, Salieri and Cimarosa "standard-setting" and BBC Music magazine called it "top-drawer".

For her second ONYX CD Chen Reiss and pianist Charles Spencer have assembled a wonderful collection of songs on the subject of 'The Nightingale and the Rose' – songs that convey the magic of being in love, the heartbreak of love lost, the memories, the fun, the fantasies all associated with that strange, mysterious, dangerous and all-powerful condition –

love.

In repertoire that ranges from Purcell to Krenek, Hahn to Meyerbeer and Rimsky-Korsakov, and ends in Berkeley Square in London, this is a programme tailor-made for Chen Reiss’s remarkable voice and it will seduce you.

Another favourite of the Salzburg public was the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who besides her Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro also enjoyed repeated successes in Salzburg with her song recitals. In 1986, accompanied by Martin Katz, she offered a programme that knew no boundaries – ranging from the florid poesy of settings by Fauré and Strauss to Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, the moderate American Modernism of Charles Ives, Copland and Pasatieri, then to Canteloube’s French folk song adaptations. Schoenberg’s early cabaret songs served to round off the evening in ebullient fashion.

Described by the New York Times as “one of America’s finest artists and singers,” Frederica von Stade continues to be extolled as one of the music world’s most beloved figures. Known to family, friends, and fans by her nickname “Flicka,” the mezzo-soprano has enriched the world of classical music for three decades. This release highlights the iconic recordings of Faure Melodies with Jean-Philippe Collard and Melisande's Song from Faure's Pelleas et Melisande with Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson.

French ‘lightness’ and ‘charm’? Germanic ‘profundity’ and ‘gravity’?

These words sum up in a nutshell what we are offered by the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen conducted by Oswald Sallaberger for their first collaboration with Zig-Zag Territoires.

On the programme: Gabriel Fauré’s symphonic suite Pelléas et Mélisande; then a selection of his songs in their orchestral versions, performed by Karine Deshayes (Victoire de la Musique for opera singer of the year 2011).

Finally the Siegfried Idyll of Richard Wagner, probably the most delicately poetic of his works, far removed from the grandiosity of his music dramas.

This program of French song marks the solo debut recording of the brilliant young soprano Susanna Phillips. Ms. Phillips was the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, and appeared at the Met last season as Pamina in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute, and as Musetta in La bohème.

This is a unique recital of lieder by composers who were contemporaries of one another whose music is likely to appeal to the same music-lover. Alongside relatively familiar songs by Richard Strauss and Gabriel Fauré, from whence the CD takes its title, we are pleased to include rarely-heard examples from Reger, Pfitzner and Wolf-Ferrari. Sarah Maeder is a much-admired soprano who has made a special study of this repertoire, and she is excellently accompanied by the talented Gérard Wyss, to produce a recording that will be highly-prized by connoisseurs of this distinguished repertoire.

Containing songs by Schubert, Faure, Ravel, Schumann, Brahms and others, this disc is a wonderful collection of romantic songs sung by one of the best-loved singers of our time. All profits of this CD will go to charity including her own Fundación Victoria de los Àngeles.