Quatre Instants / Terra Memoria & Émilie Suite
$35.00
Out of Stock2-4 weeks add to cart
KAIJA SAARIAHO
Quatre Instants / Terra Memoria & Émilie Suite
Karen Vourc'h (soprano) / Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Marko Letonja
[ Ondine / CD ]
Release Date: Tuesday 1 September 2015
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
Ondine releases includes works written in the last decade by one of the most important Finnish contemporary composers, Kaija Saariaho (b. 1958).Two of the works, the orchestral version of Quatre instants and Émilie Suite,feature the award-winning soprano Karen Vourc'h. OrchestrePhilharmonique de Strasbourg is conducted by the orchestra's new MusicDirector, Marko Letonja.
Émilie Suite is a 25-minute work based on Saariaho's 80-minute monodramaOpera Émilie. The Opera tells the dramatic story of a true historical character,Marquise Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), one of the earliest womanscientists, who was also a mathematician and a physician. The suite includesthree songs and two orchestral interludes from the Opera.
"Karen Vourc'h...is an eloquent advocate of the heigtened arioso, flexing into and out of speech...[in Terra Memoria] Marko Letonja controls Saariaho's single arc of quizzical and querulous transformations into a haunting meditation on memory itself." (BBC Music)
"[Quatre instants] has a gleaming and glittering surface, with fine filigree work in which tuned percussion is prominent, while the voice soars and dips. One aspect of Saariaho's vocal writing is that the voice often merges with or hands over to an instrument, and is treated in some ways as if it were itself an instrument itself. The idiom is reminiscent of Szymanowski's orchestral song-cycles or Ravel's Shéhérazade and Saariaho's cycle can stand the comparison...this is a memorable disc and a valuable addition to Saariaho's growing discography." (MusicWeb)
"The atmosphere and pastel shades of the opera are preserved, but it's the song cycle on this disc, Quatre Instants, settings from 2002 of four poems by Maalouf, that shows off Saariaho's vocal writing more convincingly, with the voice of Karen Vourc'h wrapping itself around the tendrils of melody." (Guardian)
Tracks:
Quatre Instants
Terra Memoria for String Orchestra
Émilie Suite
