One may be surprised to hear the Kindertotenlieder ("Songs for Dead Children") on a program called Songs for New Life and Love, but that begins to reveal the beauties of this new release by soprano Ruby Hughes. Aided mightily by accompanist Joseph Middleton, Hughes reveals the complex emotional canvas of Mahler's songs, which are not an unending stream of overwhelming sorrow but a complex thread of memories of joy as well as sadness. They fit easily into Hughes' program, which contains songs of new love, lost love, and ...
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One may be surprised to hear the Kindertotenlieder ("Songs for Dead Children") on a program called Songs for New Life and Love, but that begins to reveal the beauties of this new release by soprano Ruby Hughes. Aided mightily by accompanist Joseph Middleton, Hughes reveals the complex emotional canvas of Mahler's songs, which are not an unending stream of overwhelming sorrow but a complex thread of memories of joy as well as sadness. They fit easily into Hughes' program, which contains songs of new love, lost love, and nature, the last being the default Romantic response to trauma. Another line of coherence in the program is the juxtaposition of Mahler and Ives, which is growing more common (and was at least anecdotally supported by Mahler himself). Both work well with the contemporary work on the program, Helen Grime's Bright Travellers, a meditation on pregnancy and birth set to texts by Fiona Benson. The excellent sound from Potton Hall gives Hughes and Middleton room to explore the emotional...
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