Dawn Upshaw-The girl with orange lips
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Earl Kim, Maurice Ravel, Maurice (Charles) Delage
Label: Nonesuch
Magazine Review Date: 11/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 47
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 7559-79262-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Psyché |
Manuel de Falla, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Instrumental Ensemble Manuel de Falla, Composer |
(3) Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Instrumental Ensemble Maurice Ravel, Composer |
(3) Japanese Lyrics |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Igor Stravinsky, Composer Instrumental Ensemble |
(2) Poems of Konstantin Bal'mont |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Igor Stravinsky, Composer Instrumental Ensemble |
(4) Poèmes hindous |
Maurice (Charles) Delage, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Instrumental Ensemble Maurice (Charles) Delage, Composer |
Where Grief Slumbers |
Earl Kim, Composer
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano Earl Kim, Composer Instrumental Ensemble |
Author: hfinch
Upshaw's inspiration for the disc seems to have been taken from a concert, presumably in Paris, on January 14th, 1914, in which the Quatre poemes hindous of Maurice Delage, the poems Mallarme poems of Ravel and the Three Japanese Lyrics of Stravinsky were all given their first performances. With an ear to the interfertilization of instrumentation between the three—minimalist filigrees of string quartet writing, pungent woodwind and sensuous harp—the disc has been filled out with works which breathe the same air, including a new chamber version of Earl Kim's
A true mystery tour, then, and not without its considerable magic. It starts with Falla's tiny cantata, Psyche, the voice, like the Soul, awakening from a plain-chanting distance to the deliquescent harmonies of Ravel-tinted flute, harp and strings. Here, and in the poems Mallarme poems, the youth and naivety of Upshaw's soprano timbre, and its alarmingly pure highest notes, brings a telling sensuality all its own to these settings.
It was Stravinsky's Japanese Lyrics which inspired the Ravel; and the complex instrumental images thrumming through the ardent vocal line make for a violent spring as evoked in these three haikus. Stravinsky's
The Delage songs, though, are a great bonus. Totally French, yet authentically Indian (they were composed on location, in the company of his businessman father), they include a haunting setting of Heine's ''Isolated Pine'' (Ein Fichtenbaum), complete with cello as sitar and a postlude of wild vocalise.'
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