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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Various Composers - Visions (Véronique Gens)


Information

  1. Alfred Bruneau - Geneviève: Introduction, récitatif et air de Geneviève "Seigneur ! Est-ce bien moi que vous avez choisie ?"
  2. César Franck - Les Béatitudes: Mater dolorosa "Moi, du sauveur, je suis la mère"
  3. Louis Niedermeyer - Stradella: Récit et air de Léonor "Ah !... Quel songe affreux !"
  4. Benjamin Godard - Les Guelfes, Op. 70: Prélude et air de Jeanne "Là-bas, vers le palais"
  5. Félicien David - Lalla-Roukh: Air de Lalla-Roukh "Sous le feuillage sombre"
  6. Henry Février - Gismonda: Air de Gismonda "Dit-elle vrai ?"
  7. Camille Saint-Saëns - Etienne Marcel: Récit et air de Béatrix "Ah ! Laissez-moi, ma mère !"
  8. Jules Massenet - La Vierge: Le dernier sommeil de la Vierge
  9. Jules Massenet - La Vierge: Extase de la Vierge "Rêve infini, divine extase"
  10. Fromental Halévy - La Magicienne: Récit et air de Blanche "Ce sentier nous conduit vers le couvent voisin"
  11. Georges Bizet - Clovis et Clotilde: Prière de Clotilde "Prière, ô doux souffle de l’ange !"
  12. César Franck - Rédemption: Air de l’Archange "Le flot se lève"

Véronique Gens, soprano
Munich Radio Orchestra
Hervé Niquet, conductor

Date: 2017
Label: Alpha
https://outhere-music.com/fr/albums/visions-alpha279

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Review

This tremendous, heady disc finds Véronique Gens and Hervé Niquet examining sub-cults of visionaries, saints and mystics in some of the less familiar 19th- and early 20th-century French operas and oratorios. It’s provocative stuff, its emotional – at times emotive – impact immeasurably heightened by very careful programming. Gens opens with Bruneau’s Geneviève – heroine of his eponymous 1881 Prix de Rome cantata – responding, Joan of Arc-like, to a divine call to save France from its enemies, then broadens the psychological terrain to encompass the Gothic frissons of Niedermeyer’s Stradella and the mystico-erotic contemplation of a very human lover in Godard’s Les Guelfes. The climax is reached with Massenet’s depiction of the Virgin Mary’s ecstatic vision of Paradise after the Assumption, a disquietingly sensual passage, given the context, that balletomanes will recognise at once as the final pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon. Thereafter the mood becomes calmer and the recital closes with reflections on the efficacy of prayer from Bizet’s Clovis et Clotilde (another Prix de Rome cantata) and Franck’s Rédemption.

Gens and Niquet throw themselves into all this with an engrossing mix of abandon and restraint. Gens’s trademark combination of purity of utterance and smoky tone speaks volumes in a repertory in which ‘religion [is] the palliative for carnal love’, as the booklet notes put it. Much of the time, she’s sparing and introverted, which means that the big emotional outpourings are all the more overwhelming when we reach them. In Bizet, Godard and the Virgin Mary’s aria from Les Béatitudes, it’s the long-breathed, hovering lines that send shivers down your spine. But real turmoil erupts when Léonor, the heroine of Stradella, wakes from a terrifying nightmare and senses she is being punished by an inscrutable God. And the way Gens’s voice surges in rapture through the Massenet is simply breathtaking. Niquet is just as committed, just as insightful, and the Munich Radio Orchestra’s contribution is first rate. At 56 minutes, the disc is on the short side, but any more would, I suspect, feel like overkill. I also found the emotional trajectory gains even greater force from reversing the playing order of the last two tracks, ending with Bizet rather than Franck. It’s a spectacular achievement, though: whatever you do, don’t hold back.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Jul/Visions_Gens_279.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Aug/Visions_Gens_279.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/18/visions-review-veronique-gens-arias-franck-massenet
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2017/08/veronique_gens_.php
https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2017/11/Recordings/V%C3%A9ronique_Gens__Visions.html
https://www.allmusic.com/album/visions-mw0003054156

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Véronique Gens (born 19 April 1966) is a French operatic soprano. Gens was born in Orléans, France, and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning first prize at the school. Her debut in 1986 was with William Christie and his Les Arts Florissants. She has since worked with Marc Minkowski, René Jacobs, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe, and Jean-Claude Malgoire. While she started out as a Baroque specialist, Gens has also come into demand for roles in Mozart operas, and as an interpreter of songs by Berlioz, Debussy, Fauré and others. Her recordings include many works by Mozart and Purcell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9ronique_Gens
https://www.veroniquegens.com/

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