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Anita Rachvelishvili - Élégie

Anita Rachvelishvili (mezzo-soprano), Vincenzo Scalera (piano)

Anita Rachvelishvili - Élégie

Awards:

her gloriously rich timbre [is] suitably tempered to accommodate a sequence of songs delivered in five different languages. As one might expect, she shows a strong affinity for the Russian songs...But...

Anita Rachvelishvili - Élégie

Anita Rachvelishvili (mezzo-soprano), Vincenzo Scalera (piano)

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Awards:

her gloriously rich timbre [is] suitably tempered to accommodate a sequence of songs delivered in five different languages. As one might expect, she shows a strong affinity for the Russian songs...But...

About

Released on the 'Sony Clasical' label - "Élégie" is the second album from Anita Rachvelishvili, showcasing her in the song repertoire to which she has a special connection despite being best known as a star of the world's greatest opera houses. Accompanied by acclaimed pianist Vicenzo Scalera, this album reveals another side to the Georgian singer; the repertoire is notable for its variety featuring five languages (Russian, Georgian, Italian, French and Spanish) and, correspondingly, five very different repertoire traditions. One of the fastest rising opera stars of recent years and winner of ‘Best Singer’ at the 2020 Oper! Awards, Anita has been described as Riccardo Muti as “without doubt the best Verdi mezzo-soprano today on the planet”. Echoing her debut album of operatic arias on Sony, she introduces listeners to a great if internationally neglected Georgian composer, in this case Otar Taktakisvili, heard in The Sun of October, a setting of the distinguished Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze, as well as Rachmaninov's setting of the Pushkin poem Oh never sing to me again and Tchaikovsky's None but the lonely heart. "I really love this repertoire. It gives one more colours and more possibilities for expressing emotions with the voice", says Anita Rachvelishvili. During Covid-19, she has remained in demand whether appearing in the Metropolitan Opera's online At Home Gala or live with Greek National Opera in Athens. But in a year dominated by isolation, this album (recorded in her home city of Tbilisi just a few weeks before the shutters came down) shows that there is beauty in musical introspection.

Contents and tracklist

No. 1 El paño moruno
Track length1:08
No. 2 Seguidilla murciana
Track length1:18
No. 3 Asturiana
Track length2:24
No. 4 Jota
Track length2:43
No. 5 Nana
Track length1:48
No. 6 Canción
Track length0:58
No. 7 Polo
Track length1:27

Awards and reviews

  • Presto Editor's Choice
    July 2021
  • International Classical Music Awards
    2022
    Nominated - Vocal

October 2021

her gloriously rich timbre [is] suitably tempered to accommodate a sequence of songs delivered in five different languages. As one might expect, she shows a strong affinity for the Russian songs...But there’s no mistaking the smouldering passion of ‘Polo’ which literally hits you for six with the blistering intensity of her singing.

October 2021

Rachvelishvili – a notable Carmen – throws herself into the more histrionic [Falla] numbers with relish, releasing a formidable chest register in ‘Polo’ that could petrify an opponent at twenty paces,

July 2021

The Georgian dramatic mezzo is on engaging, expansive form throughout, unearthing a wealth of colours in the brooding Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov laments and letting her formidable chest-voice rip to exhilarating effect in the last of Falla’s Siete Canciones populares españolas (small wonder she’s had such resounding success as Carmen). But there’s delicacy too, particularly in Duparc’s La Vie antérieure and Rachmaninov’s lullaby My child, your beauty is that of a flower.
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