Notes and Editorial Reviews
A quality product that should offer many pleasant listening hours to lovers of Lieder and Mélodies.
Two years ago, when I reviewed Measha Brueggergosman’s debut recital
Surprise!, I wrote ‘Here is a sensational surprise in the shape of the richly endowed Measha Brueggergosman, whose voice more than once reminds me of the young Leontyne Price.’ On this new disc it is rather Jessye Norman that she resembles most. It’s a vibrant voice of extreme beauty. She has an admirable legato and her sensitive phrasing tells us that there is a penetrating creative mind behind the singing, not just superb vocal cords and well drilled technique. Occasionally, though, the voice under pressure, lacks real purity. She is
Read more
certainly impressive when she expands and lets the voice ring out in its full glory, as for instance in Liszt’s
Oh! Quand je dors, but the vibrato also expands to such a degree that one can’t completely neglect it. But make no mistake: it is a great voice and minor imperfections also lend personality to the performances. In my notes there are many more pluses than minuses and words like ‘grand’, ‘intense’, ‘full-blooded’, ‘vivid’ and ‘beautiful’ abound.
In my review of the previous disc I also wrote: ‘From a wider perspective it may also be seen as a surprise to introduce a new singer through so unorthodox a choice of repertoire. Most debut recitals are either a concoction of well known Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Richard Strauss …’ Well, here it comes, but it is still a disc with a difference, a concept album on the theme
Night and Dreams. And once again Ms Brueggergosman – or the record company – surprises us by a varied and far from subdued atmosphere. The choice of songs, though drawn from largely well known and rather traditional favourites, is geographically wide and there are also a couple of new acquaintances.
One of them is the Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger and singer Francis Hime, whose
Anoiteceu is a very beautiful and inward song – with a powerful piano interlude. I quote Measha Brueggergosman from the liner-notes: ‘It’s about night, but it’s also about loss, when things get stolen from you in the night – when the moon takes away pieces of your soul.’ This song immediately became one of my favourites in this programme and I am certain that I will return to it quite often. The other one is Peter Warlock, or Philip Heseltine as was his real name, whose
Sleep from 1922 rounds off this delectable programme.
Among the French songs Duparc’s
Chanson triste is sung with glorious tone while Fauré’s
Notre amour has a nervous intensity. The same composer’s
Claire de lune and Hahn’s
L’Heure exquise have long belonged among my favourites and they are both exquisitely performed. Chausson’s
Le temps de lilas from
Poème de l’amour et de la mer, normally performed with orchestra, offers dramatic singing of the highest order – a true highlight.
Montsalvatge’s little lullaby, which I first heard almost forty years ago, sung by Teresa Berganza, is hushed and intimate as it should be and the German songs are all well conceived, though Richard Strauss’s
Wiegenlied is somewhat marred by the vibrato and in Mozart’s
Abendempfindung, arguably his finest song, I miss the mercurial approach of a Seefried or a Schwarzkopf.
As I have written many times before we experience vibrato differently and what to a certain listener can be an irritant is fully acceptable to another. My recommendation is to listen before buying but I am in no doubt that Measha Brueggergosman is one of the most thrilling young singers at the moment. With a fine programme, a good pianist, recording out of DG’s top-drawer and full texts and translations this is a quality product that should offer many pleasant listening hours to lovers of Lieder and Mélodies.
-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International
Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Beau soir by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: circa 1880; France
Length: 2 Minutes 7 Secs.
2.
Lieder (8), Op. 10: no 3, Die Nacht by Richard Strauss
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885; Germany
Length: 2 Minutes 34 Secs.
3.
Songs (5), Op. 106: no 1, Ständchen by Johannes Brahms
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: ?1888; Austria
Length: 1 Minutes 33 Secs.
4.
Oh! quand je dors, S 282 no 1 "Élégie Etienne Monnier" (1st version) by Franz Liszt
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Germany
Length: 5 Minutes 4 Secs.
5.
Chanson triste by Henri Duparc
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1868; France
Length: 3 Minutes 1 Secs.
6.
Notre amour, Op. 23 no 2 by Gabriel Fauré
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: Romantic
Written: circa 1879; France
Length: 1 Minutes 40 Secs.
7.
Canciones negras (5) for voice & piano: No. 4, Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito (Ninghe, nin by Xavier Montsalvatge
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Contemporary
Written: Spain
Length: 2 Minutes 32 Secs.
8.
Nachtstück, D 672 by Franz Schubert
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: Romantic
Written: circa 1819; Vienna, Austria
Length: 5 Minutes 19 Secs.
9.
Métamorphoses (3): no 2, C'est ainsi que tu es by Francis Poulenc
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1943; France
Length: 2 Minutes 26 Secs.
10.
An den Mond, D 193/Op 57 no 3 by Franz Schubert
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1815; Vienna, Austria
Length: 2 Minutes 44 Secs.
11.
Clair de lune, Op. 46 no 2 by Gabriel Fauré
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1887; France
Length: 2 Minutes 53 Secs.
12.
Anoiteceu by Francis Hime
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Length: 4 Minutes 43 Secs.
13.
Chansons grises (7): no 5, L'heure exquise by Reynaldo Hahn
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: 20th Century
Written: by 1893; France
Length: 2 Minutes 46 Secs.
14.
Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op. 19: no 3b, Le temps de lilas by Ernest Chausson
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1882-1890; France
Length: 4 Minutes 3 Secs.
15.
Canciones populares españolas (7): no 5, Nana by Manuel de Falla
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1914-1915; Spain
Date of Recording: 03/2009
Venue: Berlin, Teldex Studio
Length: 1 Minutes 41 Secs.
16.
Phidylé by Henri Duparc
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1882; France
Length: 4 Minutes 51 Secs.
17.
Lieder (5), Op. 41: no 1, Wiegenlied by Richard Strauss
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1899; Germany
Length: 4 Minutes 11 Secs.
18.
Spanisches Liederbuch: no 12, In dem Schatten meiner Locken by Hugo Wolf
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1889; Vienna, Austria
Length: 2 Minutes 6 Secs.
19.
Abendempfindung, K 523 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: Classical
Written: 1787; Vienna, Austria
Length: 4 Minutes 31 Secs.
20.
Lieder (6), Op. 17: no 2, Ständchen by Richard Strauss
Performer:
Measha Brueggergosman (),
Justus Zeyen (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885-1887; Germany
Length: 2 Minutes 39 Secs.
21.
Sleep by Peter Warlock
Performer:
Justus Zeyen (Piano),
Measha Brueggergosman ()
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1922; England
Length: 1 Minutes 53 Secs.
Customer Reviews
Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
