Berlioz: (Les) Nuits d'été; Overtures; Debussy: Ibéria

Advantages: The experience of getting inside an artistic head
Disadvantages: French not quite idiomatic

...to this CD is almost like eave-dropping on her private musings. It is a very intimate listening experience. You don't even have to understand French to know exactly what she is thinking as she sings the songs. Everything that needs to be communicated is there in the voice itself. A mellow and vibrant burgundy voice with a woodsy clarinet-like quality. Kasarova might not speak French well, but she sings like she has a fine French wine in her veins. Tracks: BERLIOZ: Les nuits d'ete (Summer Nights): This set of 6 songs don't really tell a single story, though they are songs set to the poems of Theophile Gautier and sharing the 'by-the-water' background theme. It is as if the singer is an unconsumated/abandonned lover who is sitting alone by the seashore and musing of her many missed romantic opportunities. 1. Villanelle 2. Le spectre de la rose 3... Read review

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Advantages: Colourful and always exciting
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...not have been a Soldier's March in Berlioz's first serious, but ultimately unfinished opera "Les Francs-Juges") V. Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat (Dream of the Witches' Sabbath) The artist sees himself in a Witches' Sabbath, surrounded by terrifying shadows, warlocks, monsters of various kinds, all gathered to participate in his funeral. Strange noises, moaning, high-pitched laughter, distant screaming that is answered by another scream. (Certainly some of the most imaginary tone-painting an orchestra could produce. And remember, its 1830!) The melody of the beloved makes its appearance amid great clamour, but it has lost its noble and sensitive character. It is nothing but an everyday dance-tune, trivial and grotesque: SHE has arrived in the Sabbath… She is greeted by loud shouts… She throws herself amid the demonic orgy… The death bells... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing pianistic performances
Disadvantages: I can't play like that

..., Chopin really having bought the idea of a nocturne into being, This one is not really what I would have expected from the title, and Chopins nocturnes would have been more of a top melody than this one which interchanges between the players regularly. It does have a cloud like feel to it, but on a fairly windy day. 2. Fêtes (festivals) - this one definitely has the frenzied feeling of a community festival, and makes absolutely full use of the range of the piano, which is quite substantial. 3. The third to this work is called Sirènes, but due to the necessity of female voices on it, it is not included on the album. 6 Epigraphes antiques 1. Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été - To call for Pan, the God of the Summer wind - now as you can imagine to call a god of wind, you need an incredibly sensitive touch, to get a really fantastic... Read review

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