Claude Debussy: Songs, Vol. 2 / Lorna Anderson, Lisa Milne, Malcolm Martineau

• Album Summary
• Notes & Reviews
• Also Purchased
• Works Details

Album Summary

Performers

• Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
• Lorna Anderson (Soprano)
• Lisa Milne (Soprano)

Composer

• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Notes & Reviews:

Acclaimed sopranos Lorna Anderson and Lisa Milne, two of Britain's leading exponents of French song, join pianist Malcolm Martineau for the second volume of Hyperion's overview of Debussy's haunting, mercurial songs. The French composer's output in this genre spanned his whole life, from adolescent attempts to set Paul Verlaine's Fêtes galantes to the Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, written five years before his death. All inhabit a universe of shifting colors and impressions, from the sensual Chansons de Bilitis to the Proses lyriques, which foreshadow the dreamlike atmosphere of Pelléas et Mélisande

BBC Music Magazine
Anderson and Milnes contrasting in approach. Anderson effortlessly glides through Debussy's limpid, lengthy phrases, while Milne's shivering sense of wonder is Melisande-like in its pent-up excitement. Milne's breathy approach to the sublime Ariettes oubliees has plenty of frisson about it.

Gramophone Magazine
The first thing to say that the performances by sopranos Lorna Anderson and Lisa Milne are consistently beautiful, alert to the implications of Debussy's word-setting, whether ecstatic or subdued...Martineau matches them in the subtlety, characterisation and refined textures of his piano-playing.

American Record Guide, September / October 2012
This is a sequel to Hyperion's recording of Debussy songs with baritone Christopher Maltman and pianist Malcolm Martineau (May/June 2003.) The two sopranos here are both marvelous: their voices are full and lustrous, capable of delicate nuance and with ample power for dramatic expression; and their French declamation is natural and compelling. Martineau's playing is, as ever, sensitive and assured.

Fanfare Magazine, November/December 2012
There is competition for this cycle from the complete set of mélodies recorded by soprano Véronique Dietschy. However, that presently requires investing in an 18-CD bargain box of Debussy's oeuvre very recently released by Deutsche Grammophon. It also depends on whether Dietschy's thinner, almost crystalline, high soprano voice (she has excellent diction) is what you want to hear in all the songs. I find that it soon becomes fatiguing, and her accompanists (Philippe Cassard and Emmanuel Strosser) are not on the same plane as Martineau, but others may disagree. Either way, let's hope that Hyperion doesn't take another nine years to release the next installment in this series; strongly recommended.

Notes & Reviews:

Recording information: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London.

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Works Details

Debussy, Claude : Fêtes galantes (3), song cycle for voice & piano, Set I, L. 80

• Performers: Malcolm Martineau (Piano); Lorna Anderson (Soprano)
• Notes: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London (05/04/2011-05/05/2011)
• Running Time: 7 min. 56 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Vocal
• Written: 1891

Debussy, Claude : Proses lyriques

• Performers: Lisa Milne (Soprano); Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
• Running Time: 19 min. 32 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Vocal
• Written: 1892-1893

Debussy, Claude : Chansons (3) de Bilitis

• Performers: Lorna Anderson (Soprano); Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
• Notes: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London (05/04/2011-05/05/2011)
• Running Time: 8 min. 20 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Vocal
• Written: 1897-1898

Debussy, Claude : Ariettes oubliées (6), song cycle for voice & piano, L. 60

• Performers: Malcolm Martineau (Piano); Lisa Milne (Soprano)
• Running Time: 15 min. 35 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Written: 1885-1887

Debussy, Claude : Chansons de France (3), song cycle for voice & piano, L. 102

• Performers: Lorna Anderson (Soprano); Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
• Notes: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London (05/04/2011-05/05/2011)
• Running Time: 6 min. sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Choral
• Written: 1904

Debussy, Claude : Poèmes (3) de Mallarmé, song collection for voice & piano, L. 127

• Performers: Malcolm Martineau (Piano); Lorna Anderson (Soprano)
• Notes: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London (05/04/2011-05/05/2011)
• Running Time: 7 min. 10 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Vocal
• Written: 1913