This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
Given Anne Sofie von Otter’s fascination with the changing flavours and scents of language, and with blending her light mezzo-soprano into a varied palette of instrumental timbres, it had to be only a matter of time before she recorded a recital of French mélodies with chamber ensemble. Her culminating performance, with pianist Bengt Forsberg and a string quintet of her compatriots, of the song cycle by Fauré which gives this disc its name, is certainly one of the most vibrantly alive and persuasive in the catalogue. Here, indeed, is Verlaine’s ‘L’heure exquise’. The recital starts with Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, in which a long, suede-soft vocal line is sustained over the rustling of
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string quartet, piccolo and bass clarinet. And then Von Otter’s voice blossoms into Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, every second passionately engaged, and animated by Bengt Forsberg’s sentient piano-playing. Andreas Alin’s flute dances its way through the winsome Trois chants de Noël by Frank Martin, haunts Saint-Saëns’s Une flûte invisible and is joined by harp, cello-as-sitar, cor anglais, bass clarinet and string quartet for Quatres poèmes hindous, in which von Otter’s mezzo delights in the essentially Gallic sensibility of these seductive settings by Ravel’s pupil Maurice Delage. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)
-- Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording
1.
La bonne chanson, Op. 61 by Gabriel Fauré
Performer:
Tomas Gertonsson (Double Bass),
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Nils-Erik Sparf (Violin),
Ulf Forsberg (Violin),
Matti Hirvikangas (Viola),
Mats Lindström (Cello)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1892-1894; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 21 Minutes 58 Secs.
Language: French
2.
Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37 by Ernest Chausson
Performer:
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Ulf Forsberg (Violin),
Matti Hirvikangas (Viola),
Mats Lindström (Cello),
Nils-Erik Sparf (Violin)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1898; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 6 Minutes 45 Secs.
Language: French
3.
Poèmes hindous (4) by Maurice Delage
Performer:
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Andreas Alin (Flute),
Peter Rydström (Flute),
Peter Rydström (Piccolo),
Per Billman (Bass Clarinet),
Ulf Bjurenhed (English Horn),
Ulf Bjurenhed (Oboe),
Lars Paulsson (Clarinet),
Matti Hirvikangas (Viola),
Mats Lindström (Cello),
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano),
Ulf Forsberg (Violin),
Nils-Erik Sparf (Violin),
Per Billman (Clarinet),
Lisa Viguier (Harp)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1913; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 8 Minutes 58 Secs.
Language: French
4.
Une flûte invisible by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer:
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano),
Andreas Alin (Flute),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 3 Minutes 3 Secs.
Language: French
5.
Rapsodie nègre by Francis Poulenc
Performer:
Matti Hirvikangas (Viola),
Mats Lindström (Cello),
Ulf Forsberg (Violin),
Nils-Erik Sparf (Violin),
Lars Paulsson (Clarinet),
Andreas Alin (Flute),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1917; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 10 Minutes 37 Secs.
Language: French
6.
Poèmes (3) de Stéphane Mallarmé by Maurice Ravel
Performer:
Matti Hirvikangas (Viola),
Ulf Forsberg (Violin),
Nils-Erik Sparf (Violin),
Per Billman (Bass Clarinet),
Per Billman (Clarinet),
Lars Paulsson (Clarinet),
Peter Rydström (Piccolo),
Peter Rydström (Flute),
Andreas Alin (Flute),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Mats Lindström (Cello),
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1913; France
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 12 Minutes 28 Secs.
Language: French
7.
Chants (3) de Noël by Frank Martin
Performer:
Andreas Alin (Flute),
Bengt Forsberg (Piano),
Anne Sofie von Otter (Mezzo Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1947; Switzerland
Date of Recording: 11/1994
Venue: Concert Hall, Stockholm Academy of Music
Length: 4 Minutes 48 Secs.
Language: French
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