There are plenty of recordings of French art songs from Fauré up through Satie, but this British release has several special features going for it. First is the presence of two fine contrasting voices, the reedier mezzo soprano Susan Bickley and the more muscular soprano Claire Booth, both expertly accompanied by pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen. Both singers have been around for a while and are suited to the themes of mature sensuality that pervade the program, and they are nicely deployed: Bickley opens and closes the program ...
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There are plenty of recordings of French art songs from Fauré up through Satie, but this British release has several special features going for it. First is the presence of two fine contrasting voices, the reedier mezzo soprano Susan Bickley and the more muscular soprano Claire Booth, both expertly accompanied by pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen. Both singers have been around for a while and are suited to the themes of mature sensuality that pervade the program, and they are nicely deployed: Bickley opens and closes the program with the brashly humorous music of Satie, palate cleansers for the main attractions, and Booth enters with the gorgeous Baudelaire settings of Debussy, the most intricate songs he ever wrote. The program is beautifully coherent, with the Debussy and the modern Letters from Claude of British composer Jonathan Dove bookended by the Satie and the more classical lyricism of Fauré, divided among the two singers. Finally, the Dove Letters from Claude -- setting letters directed to...
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