Renée Fleming – Christmas In New York (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Renée Fleming – Christmas In New York (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:36 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Holiday, Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

American soprano Renee Fleming’s first-ever holiday album celebrates the beloved and iconic Christmas season in New York City. From Rockefeller Center to the holiday windows lining 5th Avenue, the essence of the city at the most wonderful time of year is captured on Christmas in New York.
With guests representing such genres as jazz, pop and classical, this album will appeal not only to Fleming’s core classical fan base but also to a broader, music savvy consumer.
Joining Fleming for the Christmas celebration are guest artists ranging from Rufus Wainwright and Gregory Porter to Wynton Marsalis and Kurt Elling.

Fleming’s elegant persona along with the intimate arrangements of holiday classics makes this album perfect for holiday parties, stocking stuffers and as a treasured holiday gift. This sophisticated album is sure to be a perennial favourite.

This is the first Christmas release by celebrated American soprano Renée Fleming, and opinions may well depend on the background and expectations brought to it. Although the track list suggests what’s what here, it’s not 100 percent clear that this is not an operatic album at all, but a jazz-pop collection. Fleming has sung this kind of music before, but she has made her reputation mostly through pure operatic releases, and if listeners’ points of reference are the track record of other opera singers who have essayed American pop styles, this may well be pleasantly surprising with the low, churchy sound Fleming pulls off in combination with a variety of jazz and pop instrumentalists and vocalists. If a point of reference is the jazz vocal tradition, listeners will probably feel that it’s surprisingly accurate but somehow lacking, much as if a leading jazz female vocalist released an album of operatic arias. For members of that happy group already familiar that Fleming can do anything she wants to, impressions will be confirmed here, but it may feel that she actually settles into a groove and doesn’t push much beyond it, except in the more folkish arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter with Rufus Wainwright. Unsurprisingly, Fleming seems most comfortable with him, and the album could have used a few more of these; the jazz combos have a certain sameness and the program unrolls. But a bonus on the pop side is the presence of an apparently new song, Central Park Serenade, by pop songwriter Diane Warren. In all this is a holiday release that is unlikely to disappoint, even as reactions may vary. –James Manheim

Tracklist:
Felix Bernard (1897-1944)
1. Winter Wonderland 03:50
Renée Fleming, Wynton Marsalis

Hugh Martin
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 03:35
Renée Fleming, Gregory Porter

Jay Livingston, Raymond B. Evans (1915- )
3. Silver Bells 03:07
Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara

Richard Carpenter, Frank Pooler
4. Merry Christmas, Darling 05:36
Renée Fleming, Chris Botti

Jule Styne (1905-1994)
5. The Christmas Waltz 03:19
Renée Fleming, Chris Botti

Alexandra Denny
6. Who Knows Where The Time Goes 04:26
Renée Fleming, Brad Mehldau

Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)
7. Sleigh Ride 05:17
Renée Fleming, Wynton Marsalis

Russell Faith, Clarence Kehner
8. Snowbound 06:28
Renée Fleming, Kurt Elling

Harold Edwin Darke (1888-1976)
9. In The Bleak Midwinter 03:46
Renée Fleming, Rufus Wainwright

Diane Warren
10. Central Park Serenade 04:12
Renée Fleming, Gregory Porter

Dudley Brooks, Harold Stanley, Irving Taylor
11. The Man With The Bag 02:40
Renée Fleming

Paul Simon (1941- )
12. Love And Hard Times 04:46
Renée Fleming, Brad Mehldau

Traditional
13. Still, Still, Still 05:16
Renée Fleming, Kurt Elling

Bonus Track
14. New York Tendaberry 07:19
Yo-Yo Ma

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