1. Şi
dacă ramuri bat ǐn geam
(And if branches beat against the window)
[2:07]
2. Cucule, de ce nu vii (Cuckoo,
why don’t you return) [2:30]
3. Rea de plată
(The reluctant debt payer) [1:56]
4. Nut e-ai priceput! (You were
such a knucklehead!) [4:10]
5. Ǐn parcul Luxemburg (In
Luxemburg garden) [4:05]
6. Pe
lǐngă plopii fără
soţ (Where mateless
poplars grow) [2:03]
7. Noapte
de vară (Summer night)
[5:42]
8. Gazel (Gazel) [2:25]
9. Ideal (Illusion) [22:41]
10. Ǐn fereastra dinspre mare
(At the window on the sea) [2:27]
11. O, vin pe mare (Come down
to the sea) [2:14]
12. Lună,
lună, stea vicleană
(Moon, moon, you wily star) [1:09]
13. Pe
aceeaşi ulicioară
(On the same lane) [2:25]
14. La groapa lui Laie (At the
grave of Laie) [5:56]
15. Ş-acele
dulci păreri de rău
(And that sweet remorse) [1:33]
16. Prea
sus aţi fost! (So far
above!) [2:59]
17. Stelele-n cer (Stars in the
sky) [3:03]
Nicolae Bretan was
born on 25 March 1887 in Naszod, Hungary
and died on 1 December 1968 in Cluj,
Romania. Insofar as he is known at all
in the West it is for his operas, which
are among the best of Romanian operas:
Luceafarul, Golem, Horia and
Arald have all been recorded
by Nimbus. That he is so little known
is certainly due to the fact that he
was made a ‘non person’ by the Communist
Regime. Besides being composer, conductor
and critic he was also a singer. It
is the song writing that "runs
like a connecting thread through his
entire creative life". He set Romanian
texts but also Hungarian and German.
On the present disc, and a companion
disc from the renowned baritone Alexandru
Agache, Nimbus pay a well deserved tribute
to this part of his oeuvre. I hope that
the public interest will be big enough
for this enterprise to pay off.
I must admit to not
being particularly well informed about
Nicolae Bretan, even though I knew the
name. Listening through this disc during
a couple of sittings and returning to
certain songs for a second hearing I
have to report a steadily growing enthusiasm
for his music. After just a couple of
songs I realised that he has a voice
of his own, not easy to define, but
it is highly accessible music, tonal
and eminently well wrought for the human
voice and with tunes that stick. Several
songs are quite simply structured, strophic
settings while others are elaborated
and through-composed. His choice of
poems encompasses lyrical reflection
as well as humoristic narrative and
the longest item, Ideal (tr.
9) is an almost 23-minute-long ballad
in four sections – it might as well
be described as a song-cycle. The melodies
seem to come directly from the Romanian
soil – there is nothing calculated or
artificial about them. The accompaniments
are unobtrusive but efficient and Julius
Drake is as usual a listening pianist
– the ideal partner for any singer.
Those who still doubt
my judgement should lend an ear to the
first two songs, the atmospheric Summer
night (tr. 7), the evocative At
the window on the sea (tr. 10) with
some Sibelian echoes, the light and
beautiful Come down to the sea
(tr. 11) or On the same lane
(tr. 13). The dark At the grave of
Laie (tr. 14) is nine stanzas long
but each stanza has its own melodic
material. The concluding Stars in
the sky (tr. 17) is another gem
- contemplative and beautiful.
So much for the songs.
The singing is another bait. Ruxandra
Donose’s operatic career has brought
her to most of the major stages of the
world, and with her beautiful, rounded
mezzo-soprano and her deep involvement
she is just as apt at tackling the more
intimate art of Lieder. Singing in her
mother tongue she relishes the poems
and we are offered marvellously assured
and refined singing. Many of the songs
are on a relatively intimate scale and
Ms Donose often sings with restraint.
She also has at her disposal deep contralto
chest-notes and at the other end of
the range a silvery top.
I am eager to return
to these songs in such compelling readings.
I look forward to hearing the companion
disc, where Agache includes several
songs that Ruxandra Donose also sings.
The liner-notes are
compiled from Hartmut Gagelmann’s book
Nicolae Bretan: His Life – His Music,
and there are full texts and line
by line translations. Nimbus clearly
belongs to the rank of companies that
refuse to compromise on production values.
There is no way of finding fault with
the recording.
Since I believe that
a majority of our readers are just as
unfamiliar with the works of Nicolae
Bretan as I was, I can only urge those
interested in good songs and superlative
singing to investigate this issue. It
should yield a good return.
Göran Forsling
Further Bretan
songs here
Other Bretan reviews
My
Lieder-Land Volume 1
My
Lieder-Land Volume 2 RECORDING
OF THE MONTH (April)
SONGS
Ruxandra Donose (sop)
SONGS
Alexandru Agache (baritone)
Sacred
Songs
Horia
- Opera
Golem,
Arald - Operas
for details
Ruxandra Donose (mezzo); Julius Drake
(piano) 
Sound Sample - excerpt
