Soprano Christiane Karg sings:
- Lieder by Strauss, Fauré, Debussy, and Poulenc
The London debut of Bavarian soprano Christiane Karg in July 2012 proved to be a highlight of London’s song recital series. A regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses, singing roles from Musetta (La bohème) to Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Ms. Karg is also well known for her enchanting performances on the concert platform.
Ms. Karg’s recital on this CD features two themes to link the program together: Songs of Nature in the first half, and songs of night and dreams in the second.
Exploring celebrated Lieder of the art song repertoire alongside lesser-known songs, the program moves from rarely heard floral songs from Richard Strauss’ teens, through dreamy settings by Fauré, Debussy and Poulenc, mysterious and nocturnal Lieder of Hugo Wolf to Alban Berg’s ‘Sieben frühe Lieder’ (Seven early songs).
Here’s a list of the specific selections:
Alban Berg:
Sieben frühe Lieder
Claude Debussy:
Green (No. 5 from Ariettes Oubliées)
Spleen (No. 6 from Ariettes Oubliées)
Gabriel Fauré:
Nell, Op. 18 No. 1
Les roses d’Ispahan Op. 39 No. 4
La rose Op. 51 No. 4
Poulenc:
Fleurs
Strauss, R:
Die erwachte Rose
Rote Rosen
Mädchenblumen (4 songs), Op. 22
Die Nacht, Op. 10 No. 3
Traum durch die Dämmerung, Op. 29 No. 1
Weißer Jasmin, Op 31 No 3
Wolf, H:
Verschwiegene Liebe (No. 3 from Eichendorff-Lieder)
Die Nacht (No. 19 from Eichendorff-Lieder)
Unfall (No. 15 from Eichendorff-Lieder)
Nachtzauber (No. 8 from Eichendorff-Lieder)
Performed by Christiane Karg (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Let me illustrate with several videos:
First, let’s listen to Ms. Karg perform an arrangement for small ensemble of the song ‘Wir genießen die himmlischen Freuden’ from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony #4:
And next, here is Christiane Karg in ‘Come il vapor s’accende’ by Haydn:
Finally, here is the Mozart song ‘Komm lieber Mai und mache’ (Come, dear month of May, and make the flowers green again) as performed by Christiane Karg:
Tags: Christiane Karg, soprano, Strauss, Debussy, Faure, Poulenc