Juliane Banse & Martin Helmchen – Hindemith: Das Marienleben, Op. 27 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:45 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Glenn Gould, whose talents as an agitator and showman are well known, didn’t hesitate to declare himself “firmly convinced that Das Marienleben, in its original form [because there exists a revised version made around twenty years after the first – SM], was the greatest song cycle ever composed.” That should be taken with a pinch of salt, of course, but one can’t ignore a statement like that. Taking words by Rilke, Hindemith set to work putting them to music between June 1922 and July 1923. The dates are significant because they marked a fundamental turning point for the composer: the move from expressionism to “New Objectivity”, a very Germanic movement which sought to erase the slightest trace of postromanticism by developing a pared-down and less emotive language. That said, in musical terms, it is all rather more fluid than in painting. However, throughout the seventy-odd minutes of this cycle, Hindemith moves constantly from one to the other, as its fifteen pieces were written in no particular order: the oldest are the eleventh and the fifteenth; the last ones to be written are the thirteenth and fourteenth. Knowing Hindemith, of course, one might think that he could never resist an emotional charge, even when set firmly in his rigorous counter-punctual language. Note that Juliane Banse and Martin Helmchen have chosen to record the 1922-23 version, and not the revision of 1936-48 – and so we’re listening to Gould’s favourite version.
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Juliane Banse – Sutermeister: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:12:11 minutes | 645 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Toccata Classics
Heinrich Sutermeister (1910–95) belongs to the generation of Swiss composers after Bloch, Honegger, Martin and Schoeck. His operatic version of Romeo and Juliet soon spread his reputation far afield, and conductors as prominent as Bohm, Karajan and Sawallisch championed his works, although since his death his music has not had the attention it deserves. These four big-boned works – a powerful setting of Boethius, an extract from Romeo und Julia and two sets of moving love-letters from genuine historical figures in Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment Germany and Switzerland – attest to the acuity of his ear in balancing voice and large orchestra and confirm his instinct for drama.
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Juliane Banse, Dorian Wilson, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern – Cole Porter: A Celebration (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 56:11 minutes | 581 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SWR Classic
Cole Porter left a musical legacy that earned him great respect far beyond the world of popular music: more than 40 of his musicals and countless melodies became evergreens, while their lyrics became quoted in daily life. His songs, with their ease, elegance, refinement and drive have fascinated musicians of all genres ever since. Juliane Banse is one of the most versatile singers of her generation with a repertoire ranging from Mozart to Richard Strauss, from unknown operas to the most current modern music. It was only a question of time before she would turn to Cole Porter, hence this album, recorded in the autumn of 2018. And she has to be credited for not trying to copy Ella Fitzgerald, for example, but for singing Porter in her own way; for retaining her clearly intoned, classically trained voice, and not awkwardly acting the part of a husky bar singer. Banse perfectly interprets the roles in her very own way, turning between the ironic, erotic, lascivious and vigorous, with all the necessary syncopated swing. Fans of American entertainment and those lovers of beautiful singing who have an open mind will all find pure delight in this recording. The arranger, composer, choir master and church musician Lars J. Lange made wonderfully lavish orchestral arrangements of Porter’s songs, while conductor Dorian Wilson makes his “classical” ensemble swing and virtually wallow in these melodies.
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