Berlioz: Herminie - Les nuits d'été & Ravel: Shéhérazade Veronique Gens & John Axelrod

• 1 Moderato - Recitative: Quel trouble te poursuit, malheureuse 03:56
• 2 Aria: Adagio non troppo, 'Ah! Si de la tendresse ou mon coeur - Recitative: Que dis-je? ou s'egarent mes voeux? 05:06
• 3 Aria: Allegro assai agitato, 'Arrete! Cher Tancrede' - Recitative: Que Clorinde est heureuse 05:10
• 4 Aria: Allegro impetuoso vivace, 'Venez, venez, terribles armes!' - Priere: Largo, 'Dieu des chretiens, toi que j'ignore - Tempo I 07:49
• 5 No. 1. Villanelle 02:13
• 6 No. 2. Le Spectre de la rose 06:30
• 7 No. 3. Sur les lagunes 05:58
• 8 No. 4. Absence 04:35
• 9 No. 5. Au cimetiere 04:44
• 10 No. 6. L'Ile inconnue 03:45
• 11 No. 1. Asie 09:20
• 12 No. 2. La flute enchantee 02:54
• 13 No. 3. L'indifferent 03:24
• Total Runtime 01:05:24

Info zu Berlioz: Herminie - Les nuits d'été & Ravel: Shéhérazade

Ondine is delighted to announce a new release from star soprano Véronique Gens, who performs Herminie and Les Nuits d’été by Hector Berlioz and Shéhérazade by Maurice Ravel with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under the baton of their music director John Axelrod. Véronique Gens is recognised internationally as one of the great sopranos working today. She has forged her career in the baroque repertory and the music of Mozart, but French repertoire, especially Berlioz and Ravel, are “as natural to her as the air that she breathes”. Her French remains a model of immaculate diction, both fluid and luminous.

Véronique Gens has a very special relationship to Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Herminie, and here combines them on this album with Shéhérazade by Ravel, which conjures up a totally different world. The charismatic conductor John Axelrod was appointed music director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire in 2009, and follows the philosophy of being “open to the world” with his extraordinarily diverse repertoire choices and innovative programming. He is sought after across the world both for concerts and opera.

'Véronique Gens has recorded Les Nuits d'Eté before, in 2001 for Virgin Classics, as part of an all-Berlioz disc alongside the early scena, La Mort de Cléopatre. The wonderful poise and clarity of that performance invited comparisons with what is generally regarded as the greatest of all versions of Berlioz's song cycle, by Régine Crespin. In returning to the work, Gens pushes that parallel even farther by pairing it with Ravel's Shéhérazade, exactly as on Crespin's original LP.

As you might expect, Gens's singing has sharpened its musical perceptions still further and acquired even more shades of colour since that 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, whether it's in the joyous buoyancy that she brings to the opening Villanelle, the sensuousness wrapped around the phrases of Sur les Lagunes or the hint of mysterious smokiness that invades her tone for Au Cimetière.

With the Angers-based orchestra that he took over last year, John Axelrod provides wonderfully supple, attentive support. His players are equally impressive, whether conjuring up the hazy, suggestive backdrops to the gorgeous velvety sheen of Gens's voice in Ravel's Klingsor settings, or the more classically correct accompaniment to Herminie, Berlioz's second unsuccessful attempt to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, for which Gens's experience as a Gluck singer is the perfect pedigree. The disc's only blemish is a curious one: two-thirds of the way through Sur les Lagunes, the voice suddenly recedes, as if Gens has moved farther from the microphone. It's a passing blip, though; everything else is pure ravishment.' (Andrew Clements, The Guardian)

Véronique Gens, soprano
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
John Axelrod, conductor

Recorded at Auditorium 2000, Nantes, France (2009-09-25&2010-10-26_2010-)

Keine Biografie vorhanden.

Booklet für Berlioz: Herminie - Les nuits d'été & Ravel: Shéhérazade