Marianne Crebassa & Fazil Say: Secrets
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Label: Erato
Cat No: 9029576897
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 20th October 2017
Contents
Works
Chansons de Bilitis (3)Melodies (3) de Verlaine (Songs to Verlaine poems)
Au pays ou se fait la guerre
Chanson triste
Elegie
Lamento
Mirages, op.113
Sheherazade: a song cycle after three poems by Tristan Klingsor
Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera
Gezi Park 3 (version for voice and piano)
Artists
Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)Fazil Say (piano)
Bernhard Krabatsch (flute)
Works
Chansons de Bilitis (3)Melodies (3) de Verlaine (Songs to Verlaine poems)
Au pays ou se fait la guerre
Chanson triste
Elegie
Lamento
Mirages, op.113
Sheherazade: a song cycle after three poems by Tristan Klingsor
Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera
Gezi Park 3 (version for voice and piano)
Artists
Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)Fazil Say (piano)
Bernhard Krabatsch (flute)
About
Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazıl Say share some tantalising, captivating and sensuous Secrets in this album of songs, centred on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazıl Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014. Describing the recording sessions, Marianne Crebassa says: “Sometimes we worked in a kind of trance … there were some moments when nothing seemed to exist around us …”
Secrets includes Debussy’s discreetly erotic Trois Chansons de Bilitis, settings of texts by Pierre Louÿs that were inspired by ancient Greek literature, and Ravel’s sumptuous Shéhérazade, three contrasting songs that conjure up exotic moods rather than retelling the stories of the 1001 Nights. They are joined by a work by Fazıl Say that is inspired by his native Turkey, but which moves away from the spirit of legend and fantasy: Gezi Park 3 belongs to a series of works that he composed in response to the momentous civil protests that took place in Istanbul in June 2013. Say and Crebassa gave its premiere in Bremen in September 2014, where it was heard as a ‘Ballad for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra’. Crebassa’s part is a wordless vocalise and the work is recorded here in a version for voice and piano.
Secrets includes Debussy’s discreetly erotic Trois Chansons de Bilitis, settings of texts by Pierre Louÿs that were inspired by ancient Greek literature, and Ravel’s sumptuous Shéhérazade, three contrasting songs that conjure up exotic moods rather than retelling the stories of the 1001 Nights. They are joined by a work by Fazıl Say that is inspired by his native Turkey, but which moves away from the spirit of legend and fantasy: Gezi Park 3 belongs to a series of works that he composed in response to the momentous civil protests that took place in Istanbul in June 2013. Say and Crebassa gave its premiere in Bremen in September 2014, where it was heard as a ‘Ballad for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra’. Crebassa’s part is a wordless vocalise and the work is recorded here in a version for voice and piano.
Disc of the Week, 28 October 2017, BBC Radio 3 Record Review
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Debussy: 3 chansons de Bilitis, L. 90: I. La Flûte de Pan
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2Debussy: 3 chansons de Bilitis, L. 90: II. La Chevelure
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3Debussy: 3 chansons de Bilitis, L. 90: III. Le Tombeau des naïades
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4Ravel: Shéhérazade, M. 17: I. Asie
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5Ravel: Shéhérazade, M. 17: II. La Flûte enchantée
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6Ravel: Shéhérazade, M. 17: III. L'Indifférent
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7Debussy: 3 Mélodies de Verlaine, L. 81: I. La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales
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8Debussy: 3 Mélodies de Verlaine, L. 81: II. Le son du cor s'afflige vers les bois
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9Debussy: 3 Mélodies de Verlaine, L. 81: III. L'échelonnement des haies moutonne à l'infini
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10Ravel: Vocalise-étude en forme de Habanera, M. 51
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11Fauré: Mirages, Op. 113: I. Cygne sur l'eau
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12Fauré: Mirages, Op. 113: II. Reflets dans l'eau
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13Fauré: Mirages, Op. 113: III. Jardin nocturne
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14Fauré: Mirages, Op. 113: IV. Danseuse
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15Duparc: Mélodies: XIII. Au pays où se fait la guerre
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16Duparc: Mélodies: VII. Lamento
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17Duparc: Mélodies: X. Elegie
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18Duparc: Mélodies: IX. Chanson triste
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19Say: Gezi Park 3
Europadisc Review
Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa may have made her initial reputation in the works of Handel and Mozart, but – as her debut recital disc Oh, Boy! with Marc Minkowski demonstrated – she’s also hugely gifted in the Gallic repertoire. For her latest disc, she teams up with pianist and composer Fazıl Say for a programme of French mélodies, and the results are nothing short of miraculous. Crebassa herself has the mezzo voice of one’s dreams: focused, with an intense but contained vibrato that recalls the greatest singers of the early and mid-20th century, combining astonishing clarity and top-end brilliance with fullness and maturity of expression. She is able to achieve the subtlest of shadings from note to note, so that every word, every syllable seems to tell. In this she is perfectly matched with Say, who is a consummate magician at the piano keyboard, one moment evoking oriental delights, the next summoning up textures of liquid fluidity.
With a musical partnership made in heaven (or so it seems when listening to this disc), the programme is an exceptionally strong one. It starts with Debussy’s three Chansons de Bilitis, which in these performances vividly summon the shades of Ancient Greece (manufactured as they may be in Pierre Louÿs’s pseudotranslation). In Ravel’s Shéhérazade such is the sheer range of Say’s touch that, with the help of Bernhard Krabatsch’s flute playing in ‘La Flûte enchantée’, you scarcely notice the absence of an orchestra. There have been many classic recordings of both these vocal masterpieces over the years, but Crebassa’s withstand comparison with the very best of them.
Debussy’s three settings of Verlaine are no less vivid: in ‘La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales’, for example, you feel from singer and pianist both the overwhelming force of the sea and the majestic grandeur of a cathedral. Ravel’s Vocalise en forme de Habanera was originally written as an exercise in breath control, but Crebassa goes way beyond the technical demands, and together with Say creates an atmosphere of sultry headiness.
Fauré’s Mirages are here as beguiling as anything in Debussy or Ravel, and within the overall programme they bring about a change of focus from the exotic and oriental to the increasingly introspective. This is a different sort of ‘secret’ world, and the (still young) singer’s maturity of understanding bears abundant fruit in carefully wrought understatement. ‘Danseuse’ has an almost Mendelssohnian lightness of touch to it, while the Duparc set brings a further darkening and intensification of mood. It includes what must be one of the most moving recordings ever of the Thomas Moore-based Elégie, while the Chanson triste gives vent to huge passion.
The postlude transports the listener to Istanbul’s Gezi Park with the third of Fazıl Say’s eponymous works composed in response to and support of the 2013 protests at plans to redevelop the area. This is a vocalise of epic scope contained within a nine-minute frame: beginning and closing with voice alone, it stretches both singer and accompanist to the limits of expression, with a dramatic, almost violent central section that makes full use of the piano’s sonic capabilities, as well as the mezzo’s chest register. As the kaleidoscopically evocative piece winds down, an increasingly mournful hue creeps in, but it ends with an enigmatic final upward flutter of the voice, suggesting an uncertain future.
In Warner’s promotional video, Say nails his colours firmly to the mast and states that Marianne Crebassa is destined for greatness: aided by his superb musical partnership here, this disc suggests that he’s absolutely right. Certainly in the great French repertoire she has a voice to die for, currently unmatched, and future recordings will be keenly awaited!
With a musical partnership made in heaven (or so it seems when listening to this disc), the programme is an exceptionally strong one. It starts with Debussy’s three Chansons de Bilitis, which in these performances vividly summon the shades of Ancient Greece (manufactured as they may be in Pierre Louÿs’s pseudotranslation). In Ravel’s Shéhérazade such is the sheer range of Say’s touch that, with the help of Bernhard Krabatsch’s flute playing in ‘La Flûte enchantée’, you scarcely notice the absence of an orchestra. There have been many classic recordings of both these vocal masterpieces over the years, but Crebassa’s withstand comparison with the very best of them.
Debussy’s three settings of Verlaine are no less vivid: in ‘La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales’, for example, you feel from singer and pianist both the overwhelming force of the sea and the majestic grandeur of a cathedral. Ravel’s Vocalise en forme de Habanera was originally written as an exercise in breath control, but Crebassa goes way beyond the technical demands, and together with Say creates an atmosphere of sultry headiness.
Fauré’s Mirages are here as beguiling as anything in Debussy or Ravel, and within the overall programme they bring about a change of focus from the exotic and oriental to the increasingly introspective. This is a different sort of ‘secret’ world, and the (still young) singer’s maturity of understanding bears abundant fruit in carefully wrought understatement. ‘Danseuse’ has an almost Mendelssohnian lightness of touch to it, while the Duparc set brings a further darkening and intensification of mood. It includes what must be one of the most moving recordings ever of the Thomas Moore-based Elégie, while the Chanson triste gives vent to huge passion.
The postlude transports the listener to Istanbul’s Gezi Park with the third of Fazıl Say’s eponymous works composed in response to and support of the 2013 protests at plans to redevelop the area. This is a vocalise of epic scope contained within a nine-minute frame: beginning and closing with voice alone, it stretches both singer and accompanist to the limits of expression, with a dramatic, almost violent central section that makes full use of the piano’s sonic capabilities, as well as the mezzo’s chest register. As the kaleidoscopically evocative piece winds down, an increasingly mournful hue creeps in, but it ends with an enigmatic final upward flutter of the voice, suggesting an uncertain future.
In Warner’s promotional video, Say nails his colours firmly to the mast and states that Marianne Crebassa is destined for greatness: aided by his superb musical partnership here, this disc suggests that he’s absolutely right. Certainly in the great French repertoire she has a voice to die for, currently unmatched, and future recordings will be keenly awaited!
Reviews
Crebassa lavishes just as much care on Say’s vocalise-like lines as she does on the songs in her native language. Every one is compelling; from the opening moments when she wraps such velvety tone around Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis, her range of tone and nuance is exquisite. Even in Ravel’s Shéhérazade, with the multicoloured orchestration replaced by piano (except for a solo flute in the central song), there’s no lack of exotic colour or variety. Andrew ClementsThe Guardian 26 October 2017
With her warm tone and often remarkable way with both vocal colour and verbal inflection, Crebassa is outstanding in this repertory, and in Fazıl Say she has an accompanist whose direct yet subtle approach matches her own. Trois Chansons de Bilitis, with which they open, gets one of its sexiest performances on disc, with Crebassa wonderful in her judgement of the thin dividing line between sensuality and naivety. ... the combination of intelligence, immediacy and subtlety is utterly compelling and marks ‘Secrets’ out as one of the finest French song recitals of recent years. I cannot recommend it too highly. Tim AshleyGramophone December 2017
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