Soprano Louise Alder has earned notice not only for her rich, operatic voice -- which here handles Debussy's obstreperous high notes -- but also for unexpected programming. No standard career builders for this young artist! Instead, she has taken on first Strauss and then a group of Russian-related songs connected to her own background. A recital of French songs is a little bit more conventional, but as Alder picks them, it is similarly revelatory. Beginning with Ravel's Shéhérazade cycle of three, she catches a certain ...
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Soprano Louise Alder has earned notice not only for her rich, operatic voice -- which here handles Debussy's obstreperous high notes -- but also for unexpected programming. No standard career builders for this young artist! Instead, she has taken on first Strauss and then a group of Russian-related songs connected to her own background. A recital of French songs is a little bit more conventional, but as Alder picks them, it is similarly revelatory. Beginning with Ravel's Shéhérazade cycle of three, she catches a certain luxuriant freedom of melody which runs through almost all of these songs, whether on the progressive edge (Ravel, Debussy, Messiaen) or more conventional (Pauline Viardot and Cécile Chaminade, neither one recorded as often as they should be). Only the dry Satie breaks the pattern, toward the end, with sharp effect. There are lesser-known songs here by Alfred Bachelet and Maurice Yvain, but they are fully absorbed by Alder and fit nicely into the flow. The accompaniment of Joseph...
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