Eric SATIE (1866-1925)
Trois Mélodies (1886)
Les Anges [2:47]
Elégie [3:41]
Sylvie [3:38]
Trois Autres Mélodies (1889-1906)
Chanson [1:08]
Chanson médiévale [1:24]
Les Fleurs [1:53]
Hymne (1891) [4:34]
Socrate - Drame Symphonique en trois Parties avec Voix (1919)
Portrait de Socrate [5:49]
Les Bords d’Illissus [7:30]
Mort de Socrate [18:25]
Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Reinbert de Leeuw (piano)
rec. September 2015, Muziekcentrum van de Omroep, Hilversum, The Netherlands
WINTER & WINTER 910 234-2 [50:51]
This release has been reviewed extensively by John Quinn and
was made a Recording of the Month by Stuart Sillitoe. This recording seems
to me like a perfect synergy between Reinbert de Leeuw’s sensitive,
restrained touch and magical balancing of Erik Satie’s distinctive harmonies,
and Barbara Hannigan’s pure and expressive vocal tones. This is the
kind of CD I would recommend to someone who doesn’t like classical vocal
recordings. I know even opera singers who are put off by vocalists who seem
to have taken lessons from an old-fashioned steam kettle, but this is entirely
the opposite. Hannigan uses vibrato as a vehicle for heightened expression
rather than a permanent feature of her vocal sound, but has the pin-point
intonation and timbre to carry it off, and the feel for melodic shape and
language to sustain each song and make each one something very special indeed.
Take that little sensual slide toward the end of Sylvie and the touches
of delightfully playful extravagance in the following Chanson: this
is the kind of vocal performance you can listen to for a very long time and
not be anything less than spellbound.
Reinbert de Leeuw’s association with Satie goes back a long way, and
while changing tastes now seem to dictate that his 1970s Philips recordings
are too slow there was always something uniquely special in his playing which,
to my mind, remains eternally valid. I am glad to hear that this sound is
very much still in evidence, providing the kind of experience which makes
you want a song like Hymne go on forever. De Leeuw has recorded Satie
songs before, and I still have an LP from 1980 on which he accompanies Marjanne
Kweksilber which was re-released in a Philips box set with the early piano
works recordings but is now easiest to find as a download, and recommendable
if you are looking for the Trois poèmes d’amour, Quatre
petits mélodies, Trois mélodies from 1916 and Ludions.
The programme is well chosen, with the earlier songs getting us in the mood
for the more enigmatic Socrate. This “white, lucid, transparent
and even” composition is more the vehicle for philosophy and views on
the human condition than song-like music in the traditional sense, though
the changing moods and fleeting ‘scenes’ are pure Satie, and delivered
with attractive warmth by this duo.
With its perfectly balanced recording, Cocteau illustrated disc and highly
desirable content this is indeed one of the Satie anniversary discs of the
year. Song lyrics are not printed in the foldout digipack, but can be found
on the Winter & Winter website.
Dominy Clements
Previous reviews: John
Quinn ~ Stuart
Sillitoe (Recording of the Month)
|
Support us financially by purchasing
this from
|
|
 |
|
 |
|