Brahms: Alt-Rhapsody; Wagner: Wesendonck-Lieder; Mahler: Der Abschied (2004)

performed by A Sei Voci, Alain-David Valckenaere (bassoon), Claude Lefebvre (flute), Daniel Arrignon (oboe), Daniel Catalanotti (horn), Edkhard Rudolph (double bass), Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Guillaume Paoletti (cello), Jean Estournet (violin)
composed by Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner

With her polished and winning 2001 collection of Bach and Handel arias, contralto Stephanie Blythe proved that she could run with the best of the countertenors. Her follow-up effort, again with conductor John Nelson and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, leaves her lighter-voiced colleagues behind, diving into the rich late-romantic works of Brahms, Wagner, and Mahler. The album also offers a lot for the musically curious, since the Wagner and Mahler selections are presented in unusual, but effective, instrumental ... Read More

With her polished and winning 2001 collection of Bach and Handel arias, contralto Stephanie Blythe proved that she could run with the best of the countertenors. Her follow-up effort, again with conductor John Nelson and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, leaves her lighter-voiced colleagues behind, diving into the rich late-romantic works of Brahms, Wagner, and Mahler. The album also offers a lot for the musically curious, since the Wagner and Mahler selections are presented in unusual, but effective, instrumental arrangements by Hans Werner Henze and Arnold Schoenberg, respectively. Why, you might ask, would anyone bother to re-orchestrate either of those composers, both of whom were unusually skilled in that regard? It's a valid question. But the Mahler in particular takes on a completely new dimension when heard in Schoenberg's bold instrumentation, and Henze shifts the sound world of the Wesendonck-Lieder toward the more intimate colors of the woodwinds, again shining a different light on the music... Read Less