Nuits

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The songs are chosen, for the most part, with Véronique Gens’s voice in mind – no longer the bright soprano of 20 years ago, but now a warm and expressive mezzo, ideal in the more soulful melodies... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 24th Apr 2020
Catalogue No: ALPHA589
Label: Alpha
Length: 61 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

24th April 2020
Diapason d’Or

May 2020

Nouveauté
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2020

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Lekeu: Nocturne

Work length4:52

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Fauré: La Lune blanche luit dans les bois (No. 3 from La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61)

Work length2:33

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Berlioz: L'Île inconnue (from Les Nuits d'été)

Work length3:20

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Tombelle: Orientale

Work length5:08

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini

Massenet: Nuit d'Espagne

Work length3:15

$1.00

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$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Saint-Saëns: Désir de l'Orient

Work length5:52

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$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Chausson: Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37

Work length6:26

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I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Liszt: La Lugubre Gondola for cello & piano, S134

Work length9:18

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

I Giardini

Ropartz: Ceux qui, parmi les morts d'amour (from Quatre poèmes)

Work length2:37

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1

Work length2:32

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$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Excerpt, Widor: Piano Quintet, Op. 7

Work length3:51

$1.00

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I Giardini

III. Molto Vivace

Track length3:51

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Louiguy: La Vie en Rose

Work length4:32

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Messager: L'Amour masque: 'J'ai deux amants'

Work length2:48

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$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

Hahn, R: La dernière valse

Work length4:28

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

I Giardini, Véronique Gens (soprano)

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Recording of the Week, Nuits from Véronique Gens and I Giardini

24th April 2020

The French soprano explores the themes of night and dreams on this beguiling programme of mélodies from the Belle Époque, given here in atmospheric new arrangements for voice and piano quintet by Alexandre Dratwicki.

As the symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French mélodie became the jewel of the salons of the ‘Belle Époque’. By placing a string quartet and a piano around the singer, Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, Lekeu’s Nocturne and Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson oscillate between chamber musical intimacy and orchestral ambition. Alongside these famous pioneering pieces, this programme devised by the Palazzetto Bru Zane champions a return to the art of transcription, so popular in the nineteenth century, with the aim of expanding the repertory for voice, strings and piano in order to unearth some forgotten treasures. Hence Hahn, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, La Tombelle, Ropartz, Louiguy and Messager all appear in a programme whose guiding thread is the emotions of nocturnal abandonment: the charms of twilight, the trajectory of dreams, the terror of nightmare or the exhilaration of festive occasions. Alexandre Dratwicki has made these arrangements in the style of the nineteenth century. Appropriately enough, the programme ends with La Vie en rose, for this music offers a kaleidoscope of all the colours of human feeling. The texture of solo strings and piano sets Véronique Gens’s incomparable storytelling artistry in a new light.

Reviews

July 2020

The songs are chosen, for the most part, with Véronique Gens’s voice in mind – no longer the bright soprano of 20 years ago, but now a warm and expressive mezzo, ideal in the more soulful melodies such as Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle.

September/October 2020

The combination of an intriguing program and attractive performances makes a recommendation easy, but I prefer the original voice-and-piano versions to the faint whiff of an expensive hotel lobby given off by lush strings. Alpha provides complete texts with English translations, and the recorded sound is all it should be.

July 2020

Everything is beautifully and fastidiously done. Gens is in fine voice here, caressing phrases and words with all her customary refinement. Chanson perpétuelle, reflective yet intense, then suddenly searing at its climax, gets one of its finest performances on disc, while the Lekeu is a model of sensual understatement, superbly sustained... I Giardini are excellent, too, really coming into their own in the instrumental pieces that punctuate the disc.

24th April 2020

Gens’s singing simply exudes what the fashion and beauty industries like to promote as ‘French girl chic’ - casually elegant, alluringly comfortable in its own skin, and all about clean and simple lines with just a hint of déshabillé around the edges...Messager’s paean to polyamory in J’ai deux amants is insouciant without being arch, and Piaf’s La vie en rose takes on a lovely life of its own in her hands...To borrow a phrase from Verlaine, it all adds up to an ‘exquisite hour’ indeed.

26th April 2020

Gens approaches her artistic prime in well-chosen vocal items, combining a cool, elegant soprano and her native savour of the French language.

23rd April 2020

Gens’s performances are as spellbinding as ever. It’s hard to think of another singer working today who is more compelling in this repertory, with every word crystal clear and every nuance of the text perfectly inflected.

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Nuits

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Recording of the Week, Nuits from Véronique Gens and I Giardini

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