Renée Fleming (soprano)
Voice Of Nature: The Anthropocene
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (piano)
rec. 27, 28, 30 April & 1 May 2021, Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia
Sung texts with English translations enclosed
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
DECCA 4852089 [56:56]
Renée Fleming has been in the limelight for more than four decades and a world-star for more than three. She has also been a true crossover artist, and besides a comprehensive operatic repertoire, encompassing close to 60 roles, including a substantial number of modern works, she has appeared in Broadway musicals, given numerous song recitals, dipped into jazz and indie pop and also been a lecturer and TV-personality, hosting many broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. Her discography is imposing, covering all the genres mentioned above. The background for the latest addition, set down in April and May 2021, was the pandemic that paralysed the whole world and changed the life situation for most of us. No travels, no cultural life, little contact with other people. Renée Fleming solved this emptiness by taking long walks in the woods near her home. “I discovered I increasingly needed this time outdoors to maintain my emotional equilibrium. I spent my childhood surrounded by farmland in upstate New York. Something of a loner, even when reading or playing music, I was often at a picture window, looking out at fields and woods. So this connection to nature is something I have felt all my life “, she says in the booklet. A consequence of this renewed interest in nature was that she recalled how many poets and composers have found inspiration in the environment, and the 19th century art song repertoire is very rich in this respect. She contacted pianist and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and together they put together a programme that reflected the budding interest in nature of some predominantly French poets and composers. But they also wanted to include some works that mirrors “our current relationship with nature” which includes the drastic climate change that already is part of our daily life. This fear, that most of us are very aware of, generated the subtitle of the album “The Anthropocene”, which in scientific terms is a new geological epoch “the age of the humans”. This epoch began “when our species began having a dominant, and eventually deleterious, impact on the earth and its ecosystems”. In that end Renée Fleming invited three contemporary composers: Kevin Puts and Caroline Shaw, both Pulitzer Prize Winners, who begin and close the programme, and Nico Muhly, whose long Endless Space divides the programme in two halves.
Most of the songs are contemplative and restrained, often slow, and soft nuances dominate. There are a few lively pieces that stick out, and the three contemporary works differ from the others harmonically and in other respects as well, but they are tonal and should be digestible also by listeners unfamiliar with present day music. Kevin Puts Evening, which is a world-premiere recording, is melodically beautiful, the piano accompaniment is not only a background, but also very active in its own terms and brings the song, after the words “the stars are so far away” with a postlude that gradually dies away – disappears in the universe.
As it happens the two most featured composers in this album, Gabriel Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn are my two greatest favourites in the French song repertoire. Prison, Les Étoiles and L’Heure exquise are all exquisitely sung with beautiful tone and loveable nuances. Note also that two of the poems are by Verlaine, who invariably conjures up the best of the composer. The following two songs by Fauré, En sourdine (Verlaine again) and Rêve d’amour (Hugo) are just as lovely, and Victor Hugo another of the poets that brought out the best of his interpreters. Franz Liszt, though Hungarian by birth, had deep relations with the French language, set Hugo to beautiful effect in S’il est un charmant gazon.
Nico Muhly’s more acid harmonies distinctly tell us we are in present times, but melodically and dramatically he is still very accessible. Endless Space was a commission, and it was dedicated to Renée and Yannick.
The following two songs by Fauré, Les Berceaux and Au bord de l’eau are long-time favourites of mine. Whether this affects my enjoyment of the readings, I can’t say, but to my ears Renée Fleming is at her very best here. So are both Hahn and Ms Fleming in L’Enamourée, another favourite song. I was surprised to see Goethe’s Über allen Gipfeln listed as the next Hahn song, since I didn’t know he had set German poetry, but it was only a misprint. It was Liszt’s setting, and I have corrected this in the list below.
More German follows, to some readers maybe surprising, since Edvard Grieg usually set Scandinavian poems. However, he studied in Leipzig and in his youth, he set some German poetry, including Heine. Fairly late he temporarily returned to it in his Sechs Lieder Op. 48. Three songs from that group is included here, and Lauf der Welt is a welcome contrast to the prevailing tranquillity of most of the programme. It’s lively, fresh and folksong like. Ein Traum is also a thrilling song with its growing intensity, crowned by a glorious final note, delivered with such effortless power that it could well have been produced 25 years ago.
Caroline Shaw’s Aurora Borealis rounds off this “Nordic” finale of the programme, which ends with a long and beautiful vocalise.
Almost exactly three years ago I reviewed Renée Fleming’s Broadway Musical album very positively. Here she is possibly even better, having preserved her beautiful tone and her exquisite nuances – her real hallmarks – and emphatically demonstrates – in Grieg’s Ein Traum that her power is also intact. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, better known as one of the foremost conductors of his generation, is a model of a sensitive accompanist – and the programme at large should be highly appreciated by every lover of good sensitive singing.
Göran Forsling
Contents
Kevin PUTS (b.1972)
1. Evening* (Dorianne Laux) [5.57]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845–1924)
2. Prison Op.83 No.1 (Verlaine) [2.23]
Reynaldo HAHN (1874–1947)
3. Les Étoiles from 12 Rondels (Banville) [3.20]
4. L’Heure exquise from 7 Chansons grises (Verlaine) [2.54]
Gabriel FAURÉ
5. En sourdine Op.58 No.2 (Verlaine) [3.30]
6. Rêve d’amour Op.5 No.2 (Hugo) [2.32]
Franz LISZT (1811–1886)
7. S’il est un charmant gazon S284i (Hugo) [3.07]
Nico MUHLY (b.1981)
8. Endless Space* (Meyer/Loyd/Traherne) [8.42] for Renée & Yannick
Gabriel FAURÉ
9. Les Berceaux Op.23 No.1 (Prudhomme) [3.08]
10. Au bord de l’eau Op.8 No.1 (Prudhomme) [2.01]
Reynaldo HAHN
11. L’Enamourée from 12 Rondels (Banville) [3.34]
Franz LISZT
12. Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh S306i (Goethe) [3.47]
Edvard GRIEG (1843 –1907)
Sechs Lieder Op.48:
13. No.3 Lauf der Welt (Uhland) [1.37]
14. No.5 Zur Rosenzeit (Goethe) [3.09]
15. No.6 Ein Traum (Bodenstedt) [2.15]
Caroline SHAW (b.1982)
16. Aurora Borealis+ (Mary Jo Salter) [4.00]
* specially commissioned work
+ world-premiere recording
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